Nationalism And The Multinational State Journal Article

American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Volume 9, Fall 1992 - Number 3 (‎13 page(s) - From 338 to 350 )

Abstract:

Nationalism and the Multinational State Louay Safi We live in a world of nation-states where national cohesiveness consti- tutes the legitimizing ground for political unity. In such a world, multinational political units are considered to be peculiar entities whose existence is either taken as an exception to the rule or is considered to be transient and therefore destined to collapse into its national units. A product of Europe's historical experience, nationalism found its way to the Muslim wotld and gained many adherents and advocates in its ethnic (i.e., Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish) and religious (i.e., Pakistani, Iranian) forms. The nationalistic mindset has become an intrinsic part of the political thinking of many Muslim individuals and groups. As a result of the discontinuity in historical political thinking and practice effected by the European cultural and political domination of Muslim life for the last two centuries, many Muslims are unaware of the much superior political structures which existed—albeit in rudimentary, distorted, or compromised forms—before Western penetration. In this paper, I will discuss the origin and development of the concept of nationalism, underscore its defects, and point out some of its devastating consequences, especially in regions rich in ethnic and religious minorities. 1 argue that nationalism is a European phenomenon invented by German intel- lectuals and employed by Prussia in order to bring about a united German state. I contend that a national government tends to suppress minority groups and is therefore inappropriate to societies with heterogenous and diverse populations. I conclude by discussing, in general terms, the model of com- munal pluralism that flourished under the khilafah system. The Genesis of Nationalism Nationalism is a relatively modern political doctrine. Writers on nation- alism trace it back to Rousseau, a European philosopher who insisted that a good political community was characterized by a homogeneous population. However, nationalism as we know it today began to take shape not in France, but in Germanic Prussia. German writers interested in a united German state began to advocate nationalism as the only legitimate basis for statehood. Louay Safi is an assistant professor of political science at the International Islamic University, Selangor, Malaysia.

Machine summary:

338 Safi: Nationalism and the Multinational State 339 Among the leading German nationalists, Herder and Fichte stand out a~ the most articulate proponents of united Germany and as the foremost advocates of nationalism in general. Acton's criticism highlights the problems confronted by members of ethnic or religious minorities in a nation-state dominated by one social group with markedly different values and customs. e. , that inferior ethnic minorities can improve their conditions by becoming united in a multinational state with intellectually superior groups) to Hegel's contention that more-civilized nations are justified in regarding lesserdeveloped nations as barbarians who may duly be dominated by and assimilated into nations on the cutting edge of civilization. The difference between the communal and national systems, however, is that while in the latter the majority imposes its values and ideas on the rest of society, the former system protects its minorities from the majority's ideological and moral encroachment The cotnmunal system that flourished under the Ottomans was not without its own problems. 346 / Safi: Nationalism and the Multinational State 347 mastering the Shari''ah (Islamic law), many judges, jurists, and legal scholars came from the Arabic-speaking peoples of the Ottoman Empire. " In the absence of the former system of communal pluralism which had prevailed for centuries in the Middle East, members of the various minority groups began to recognize that the new system of nation-states would take away their autonomy and impose upon them a new legal system formulated by the dominant social groups.

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