Religious Nationalism

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Religious nationalism is the idea that religion and politics are intertwined. According to Mark Juergensmeyer there are two types of religious nationalism; ethnic and ideological. In his essay he explains the four steps that seem to be common in all religious nationalism movements around the world. Although not exact, the sequence he has compiled is from his research on religious nationalism.

The first type of religious nationalism depicted by Juergensmeyer is ethnic religious nationalism. Ethnic religious nationalism is the idea that the land and the people of that land are linked directly to the religion and politics of that specific area and people group. In ethnic religious nationalism, “religion provides the identity that makes a community cohere and links it with a particular place” (Juergensmeyer 3). Thus saying, that religion can provide a group of people and a nation with an identity and give the people a since of nationalism, or pride in where they come from. An example of this would be Muslims who pray towards, and make pilgrimages to Mecca. The location of Mecca is not as important, as the idea that the location on the map can unite millions of people every single day. Another great example of ethnic religious nationalism is the Japanese religion Shinto. Following the signing of the Constitution of 1889, the Japanese government took over the control of approximately 110,000 Shinto shrines (Hope & Woodward 220). This form of state supported Shinto was established to bring unity and loyalty among the people to the nation of Japan. In fact, during this time there were no other religious institutions in Japan, and the leaders of the state, the emperors, also acted as the religious leaders. The religion focused ...

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...b. 10 Nov. 2011. .

Evans, C. T. "Iranian Revolution." Nova Online. 2000. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. .

Farley, John E. "Current Debates:Affirmative Action, Immigration, and Race Versus Class." Majority-minority Relations. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. 466-505. Print.

Hopfe, Lewis M., and Mark R. Woodward. "Shinto." Religions of the World. 11th ed. New York: Vango, 2009. 213-23. Print.

Juergensmeyer, Mark. "The Global Rise of Religious Nationalism." Duke University Press. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. .

United States of America. United States Court of Appeals. Eleventh Circuit. FindLaw. Thomson Reuters. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .

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