Convergence Of Religion And Nationalism Threatens Minority Rights Says Scholar

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Renowned Turkish-American scholar Ahmet T Kuru said the partnership between Islamists and nationalists had become evident in several important countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Malaysia.
PETALING JAYA: Religion and nationalism, historically at odds with each other in many countries, are beginning to converge as part of rising populist movements globally, a renowned Turkish-American scholar said.
And the global trend of advancing a religious-nationalist agenda has threatened minority rights, Ahmet T Kuru wrote in an academic journal published earlier this month.
He said it came at the high cost of discrimination against Muslim minorities in several countries, such as India, Israel, the United States and France.
However, he noted, the Muslim world was not immune to such unions and their ramifications.
The partnership between Islamists and nationalists had become evident in several important countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Malaysia, he said.
“Some Islamic conservatives might regard the unification of religious and nationalist forces as beneficial to their conservative agenda.
“But Islamist-nationalist alliances also have a sustainability problem,” he wrote in the “Journal for Religion, Society and Politics”.
Kuru said initial disagreements between Islamists and nationalists about law, education, and foreign policy “have not simply vanished”.
While there has been some ideological convergence between the two groups due to the decline of assertive secularism and assertive Islamism, Kuru said significant differences remained.
He said Islamists emphasised classical Islamic education, stressed on the global Islamic community in foreign policy and still held the idea of enforcing shariah, at least as the family law.
Nationalists, on the other hand, were still for secular laws, modern education, and foreign policy based on national interest, he said.
“Therefore, their pragmatic alliances, based on political necessity or a common animosity toward liberalism, may not ensure a permanent partnership.
“Time will tell in which countries Islamist-nationalist partnerships will endure and in which they will not.” - FMT

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