Nationalisai and Religion. The Rôle of Religious Reform in the Genesis of Arab and Jewish Nationalisai (Nationalisme et Religion. Le rôle de la réforme religieuse dans la genèse du nationalisme arabe et juif.) - article ; n°1 ; vol.35, pg 23-43

Anthony D.Smith

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1973 - Volume 35 - Numéro 1 - Pages 23-43
21 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1973
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Anthony D. Smith
Nationalisai and Religion. The Rôle of Religious Reform in the
Genesis of Arab and Jewish Nationalisai (Nationalisme et
Religion. Le rôle de la réforme religieuse dans la genèse du
nationalisme arabe et juif.)
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 35, 1973. pp. 23-43.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Smith Anthony D. Nationalisai and Religion. The Rôle of Religious Reform in the Genesis of Arab and Jewish Nationalisai
(Nationalisme et Religion. Le rôle de la réforme religieuse dans la genèse du nationalisme arabe et juif.). In: Archives des
sciences sociales des religions. N. 35, 1973. pp. 23-43.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1973.2752
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1973_num_35_1_2752Sc soc des Rel. 35 1973 23-43 Arch
Anthony SMITH
NATIONALISM AND RELIGION
The Role of Religious Reform in the Genesis
of Arab and Jewish Nationalism
la Oppression le bases XVIIe même Très religieuses proches situation siècle et isolement et sur au de les le subordination plan communautés réveil écart socio-culturel de des politique arabe la grands fin également et du et courants juive XVIIIe économique fondées partagent de histoire pendant sur dans des
étude parallèle de la montée du nationalisme arabe et juif
travers Ortodoxie religieuse de islam et du judaïsme puis de leur
développement divergent dans des situations historiques désormais
fort différentes permet de tirer des conséquences quant aux rapports
actuels entre religion et nation aussi bien pour Israel que pour les pays
arabes
Alors que le passage du judaïsme au nationalisme par le réfor
misme religieux puis le sionisme est presque réalisé pour Israël il
en va pas de même pour le monde arabe sauf Egypte Deux raisons
principales cela une part absence de réforme religieuse autre
part le peu de poids de élément le plus apte jouer un rôle important
dans la formation du nationalisme arabe savoir les chrétiens du
Proche-Orient par rapport aux courants qui font coïncider les notions
arabe et de musulman
thia paper have two aims to explore the divergences in recent Araq
and Jewish social and intellectual history and thereby to throw light upon
the intimate relationship between the forces of religion and nationalism in the
modern world The argument is pursued at both the theoretical and empirical
levels and revolves around three propositions that religion nationa
lism are conceptually and often factually opposed to each other that not
withstanding this opposition nationalism has emerged out of the ethnic religion
through religious reform within an elite that while transition from to
nationalism can be discerned clearly in the case of Jews the majority of the Arabs
remain primarily attached to religion which elevates their ethnic status
How far the experiences of either group are typical is matter for subsequent
investigation
23 DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS ARCHIVES
One of the most fashionable concepts in the recent literature of the sociology
of modernisation is that of political religion It refers to peculiar form of
religion which is especially rife in underdeveloped countries to-day What used
to be called nationalism in Europe should really be understood it is argued as
form of collective religion in Africa and Asia The concept is particularly helpful
in explaining the virulence of some recent and contemporary group conflicts
for example between Protestant and Catholic in Ulster or Orthodox Serbs and
Catholic Croats in Yugoslavia between Muslims and Hindus in the Indian sub
continent Christian Ethiopians and Muslim Somalis or Christian lbo and Muslim
Hausa-Fulani in Nigeria 1)
Perhaps the most intractable example of this type of conflict today is the
Middle Eastern Its bitterness can only be explained if we realise that the Arab-
Israeli conflict involves fratricidal struggle between two religions and religious
communities however much they dress their dispute in secular terminology
After all when the al-Aqsa mosque was partially burnt in 1969 there was
universal Islamic anguish at the desecration of this third holiest Muslim shrine
Arab political denunciations were only effective because of the breadth and depth
of religious commitment Similarly with the Jews Herzl secular apostle of Zionism
had conceded that the return to Zio must be preceded by the return to Judaism
and his opinion appeared to receive signal confirmation when even atheist Jews
flocked to the Wailing Wall at the close of the Six-day War Throughout the
Palestine conflict religion had played leading part Religious fanaticism had
initiated the 1929 riot at the Wailing Wall and the Massacre at Hebron sacred
city Religious leaders like the Mufti of Jerusalem had exerted disproportionate
influence on political events
What was true then remains so to-day Religious forces play considerable
role on both sides Basing its territorial claims on Biblical texts the Greater
Israel movement finds its most fervent supporters among the Gahal coalition
membership and the National Religious Bloc On the Arab side reli
gious interests are even more strongly represented One can see this in the pro
minent place accorded to Islam in the recently promulgated Egyptian constitu
tion influence is revealed as much in the modernising but puritannical
regimes of Gaddafi and Boumedienne as by the power of the ulema and traditional
ist kings Their propaganda is pervaded by religious sentiment When Cairo Radio
announced the sale of ten-year Jihad bonds for the army and national security
President Sadat was reported as saying
When the hour comes we are ready to meet the cost of this battle of des
tiny ... We pray to God to remove the danger from the Arab nation and help
it regain complete its sacred lands 2)
Those sacred lands of course include Jerusalem city equally sacred to the
Jews In many ways vexed status symbolises the inner substance of
the whole conflict religious issues underlie such purely instrumental matters
as the strategic position of Sharm-el-Sheikh or the Golan Heights
POLITICAL RELIGION
Clearly this explanation incorporates Paretian view of the sources of
human action For example strategic arguments are treated as so many ratio-
Other examples are Orthodox Greeks and Christian Armenians against Muslim Turks
Muslim Tatars and Uzbeks against Orthodox Russians Buddhist Burmese the Christian
Karen and British and Muslim Javanese against Calvinist Dutch and Buddhist or Confucian
Chinese
The Times 16-3-1971
24 NATIONALISM AND RELIGION
nalisations they derive from more enduring and deepseated springs of action
the underlying sentiments It is these emotions which predispose and determine
the general lines of political events In the Middle East especially politics is
determined by religious sentiments just as the protagonists are identified as
religious communities Now as before the Arab is defined by Islam the Jew
by Judaism If we treat the conflict in the Middle East as religious struggle
and nationalism as political religion we shall not be misled
Now the term can mean one of two rather different things
either politisation of traditional religion i.e. its extension into or inclu
sion of the political sphere or the emergence of new politically oriented reli
gion in contradistinction and often opposition to the traditional religion
In the latter case the new religion possesses all the main features of
but can be viewed as subvariety in practice it forms breakaway movement
and hence rival to the traditional faith Zionism and Arabism are really religions
they substitute the nation for the deity but in all other respects mutatis
mutandis conform to the religious mould At the same time they oppose tradi
tional Judaism and Islam and like millenial movements demand transfer of
allegiance to new kind of faith
With the introduction of the concept of political religion three main
positions emerge relating religion to nationalism nationalism is poli
tical extension of traditional the extended religion version natio
nalism rival religion is rival version religion to nationalism traditional faiths is secular with political strong political ideology bias opposed the
to all
Perhaps word should be said about the last position It holds that natio
nalism is conceptually as well as politically opposed to all religion totally
new kind of belief-system which by its very nature is subversive of all religious
belief Nationalism here just politically-oriented ideology it mere
extension or derivation from something else Politics is its essence It is theory
of the distribution and legitimation of global power If anything then its thrust
is from politics to religion rather than vice-versa
This is the way men of religion perceived nationalism as fundamentally
utilitarian and subversive ideology Despite the protests and ambivalences of
many nationalists the traditionalists instinctively realised that the doctrine is
devoid of true religious significance that by elevating man and his world it
denied the cosmos and the deity only to ape the religious