Defining Nation and Religious Minorities in Russia and Turkey: A Comparative Analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laman Tasch
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Sunni Islam

AbstractMany countries today face the challenges posed by their ethnic and religious diversity. This article comparatively analyzes how defining nation in Russia and Turkey affects what groups constitute religious minorities and what their prospects of integration into the Russian and Turkish societies are. It conceptualizes religious minorities as those religious groups that are excluded from the prevailing and institutionalized definitions of nation. This article studies what role religion, comprising Orthodox Christianity, and Sunni Islam, respectively, has played historically and until nowadays in Russia and Turkey in the definitions of their national identities and what kind of religious minorities each of these definitions created. It argues that a position of religious minorities depends not only on the informal association of national identity of the majority with certain religion, but also on the institutionalized support for the dominant religion by the ruling political forces.

scholarly journals Lebanon and Iraq: Two Distinct Demonstrations of Confessionalism’s Failure as a Means to Manage Ethnic and Religious Pluralism

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nour Mohsen
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Institutional Power

The Iraqi and Lebanese political systems stemmed from each country’s distinctive mosaic of sub-national identities but have been deemed corrupt and incompetent, prompting ongoing protests and calls for unity in both contexts. However, this dissatisfaction is unsurprising given the challenging task of translating the ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity that characterizes each population into an overarching national identity. The Lebanese and Iraqi political systems have attempted to manage ethnic and religious pluralism through confessionalism, or a “consociational government which distributes political and institutional power proportionally among religious sub-communities.” This paper argues that Lebanon and Iraq are two specific examples of confessionalism, demonstrating its failure to manage ethnic and religious pluralism, which seems to inevitably beget sectarianism—a discriminatory structure in which each group advances its privileges at the expense of others. Nevertheless, confessional systems are challenging to transform, namely because they institutionalize different ethnic or religious groups’ identities instead of promoting a unified, national identity. 

Multiculturalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasar Meer
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Core ◽  
National Question ◽  
Multicultural Citizenship ◽  
Future Status

The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a prominent feature of public and policy debate, the latter has largely been overshadowed by constitutional questions raised by devolution and the referenda on independence. This means that, while we have undoubtedly progressed since MacEwen (1980) characterised the treatment of ‘race-relations’ in Scotland as a matter either of ‘ignorance or apathy’, the issue of where ethnic, racial and religious minorities rest in the contemporary landscape remains unsettled. One of the core arguments of this chapter is that these issues are all interrelated, and that the present and future status of Muslims in Scotland is tied up with wider debates about the ‘national question’. Hitherto, however, study of national identity in Scotland has often (though not always) been discussed in relation to the national identities of England, Wales and Britain as a whole.

scholarly journals Effects of neighbourhood religious diversity and religious and national identity on neighbourhood trust

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022199009
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Bennett ◽  
Meenakshi Parameshwaran ◽  
Katharina Schmid ◽  
Miguel Ramos ◽  
Miles Hewstone
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
Multiple Groups ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines the relationship between religious diversity, religious and national identity, and neighbourhood trust. Using data from 6,089 individuals in England matched to census-based statistical estimates for 300 local areas, we find that religious diversity is negatively associated with neighbourhood trust. Further analyses tested indirect relationships between religious diversity and neighbourhood trust to examine whether higher levels of religious diversity are associated with a stronger sense of religious identity, and whether a stronger sense of religious identity is associated with lower levels of neighbourhood trust. We simultaneously tested whether higher levels of religious diversity are associated with a weaker sense of national identity, and whether a weaker sense of national identity is associated with lower neighbourhood trust. Multigroup analyses were conducted to assess patterns across religious groups. Results indicate that, for Christians, religious diversity is associated with a stronger subordinate religious identification, which is in turn associated with lower neighbourhood trust. There were no associations between religious diversity, national identification, and neighbourhood trust. For the other religious groups, no significant associations were found between our variables of interest. We discuss the relevance and implication of increasing religious diversity in societies for the multiple groups involved.

Tolerance and Accommodation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori G. Beaman
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

This chapter problematizes the notions and language of tolerance and accommodation in relation to religious diversity, and traces their genealogy both as legal solutions and as discursive frameworks within which religious diversity is increasingly understood in the public sphere. The problem they pose is that they create a hierarchy of privilege that preserves hegemonic power relations by religious majorities over religious minorities. Tolerance in this context might be imagined as the broadly stated value that we must deal with diversity and those who are different from us by tolerating them. Accommodation might be seen as the implementation of this value—that in order to demonstrate our commitment to tolerance we must accommodate the ‘demands’ of minority groups and those individuals who position themselves or align themselves with minorities.

scholarly journals Addressing Religious Diversity through Children’s Literature: An “English as a Foreign Language” Classroom in Israel

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawia Hayik
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Practitioner Inquiry ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Region I ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Efl Students

Conflicts between different religious groups occasionally arise in my Christian and Muslim Israeli-Arab EFL students’ school and area. In an attempt to increase students’ knowledge of and respect for other faiths in the region, I conducted practitioner inquiry research in my religiously diverse Middle-Eastern classroom. Grounded in critical literacy, I used a book set of religion-based literature alongside critical literacy engagements to effect some change in students’ tolerance towards other faiths. This article describes my journey of exploring students’ reader responses to religion-based texts and issues.

scholarly journals ‘A Most Select Gathering’. Mexican National Pilgrimages to Rome during the Papacy of Leo XIII

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Ramón Solans
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Holy See

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman Question. This paper’s analysis of these pilgrimages draws from historiography about national pilgrimages, as well as studies on Catholic mobilisation in support of the pope in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally based on primary sources of an official nature, such as reports and other printed documents produced on the occasion of the pilgrimage. The study’s primary conclusion is that national pilgrimages to Rome had a polysemic character since they brought together various religious and national identities. The pilgrimages contributed simultaneously to reinforcing the link between Catholicism and Mexican national identity and the global dimension of Catholicism and allegiance to the Holy See.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Fundamentalism in the Intersection of National and Religious Identities

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susilo Wibisono ◽  
Winnifred Louis ◽  
Jolanda Jetten
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Way

Indonesia has seen recent expansions of fundamentalist movements mobilising members in support a change to the current constitution. Against this background, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we explored the intersection of religious and national identity among Indonesian Muslims quantitatively, and in Study 2, we qualitatively examined religious and national identification among members of moderate and fundamentalist religious organisations. Specifically, Study 1 (N= 178) assessed whether the association of religious and national identity was moderated by religious fundamentalism. Results showed that strength of religious identification was positively associated with strength of national identification for both those high and low in fundamentalism. Using structured interviews and focus group discussions, Study 2 (N =35) examined the way that self-alignment with religious and national groups develops among activists of religious movements in Indonesia. We found that while more fundamentalist activists attached greater importance to their religious identity than to any other identity (e.g., national and ethnic), more moderate activists represented their religious and national identities as more integrated and compatible. We conclude that for Indonesian Muslims higher in religious fundamentalism, religious and national identities appear to be less integrated and this is consequential for the way in which collective agendas are pursued.

Rag Doll Nations and the Politics of Differentiation on Arbitrary Borders: Karelia and Moldova*

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lawrence Schrad
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnic Community ◽  
National Identities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
Territorial Boundaries ◽  
Shed Light

“Tell a man today to go and build a state,” Samuel Finer once stated, “and he will try to establish a definite and defensible boundary and compel those who live inside it to obey him.” While at best an oversimplification, Finer's insight illuminates an interesting aspect of state-society relations. Who is it that builds the state? How and where do they establish territorial boundaries, and how are those who live within that territory compelled to obey? Generally speaking, these are the questions that will be addressed here. Of more immediate concern is the fate of peoples located in regions where arbitrary land boundaries fall. Are they made loyal to the state through coercion or by their own compulsions? More importantly, how are their identities shaped by the efforts of the state to differentiate them from their compatriots on the other side of the borders? How is the shift from ethnic to national identities undertaken? A parallel elaboration of the national histories of the populations of Karelia and Moldova will shed light on these questions. The histories of each group are marked by a myriad of attempts to differentiate the identity of each ethnic community from their compatriots beyond the state's borders. The results of such overt, state-initiated efforts to differentiate borderland populations by encouraging a national identity at the expense of the ethnic, has ranged from the mundane to the tragic—from uneventful assimilation to persecution and even genocide. As an illustration of the range of possibilities and processes, I maintain that the tragedies of Karelia and Moldova are not exceptional, but rather are a consequence of their geographical straddling of arbitrary borders, and the need for the state to promote a distinctive national identity for these populations to differentiate them socially from their compatriots beyond the frontier.

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