Religious Nationalism

Events of recent years have caused a resurgence of interest in both nationalism and religion as forms of political identity and sources of collective solidarity. This has been particularly true of, though not limited to, instances of political conflict and, in some cases, collective violence that to some observers appear to be motivated by nationalist and/or religious aspirations. These instances of religious politics and politicized religion include conflict in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians; the rise of a Hindu nationalist party in India and repeated instances of interreligious strife there; the increasing scope and power of the Religious Right in the United States from the late 1970s through the early 2000s; conflicts between the Chinese state and minority religious movements such as Falun ...