This thesis explores a new political phenomenon in the Middle East - the reconciliation of nationalism and Islamism by Islamic political parties in the context of nation states. Although the concept of religious nationalism has been discussed substantially before, as for example in Juergensmeyer (1993: 40) where the author defines religious nationalism as “the attempt to link religion and the nation-state”, this work highlights that a new brand of religious nationalism has emerged in the Middle East as the result of the intertwining of nationalism and Islamism. The focus of this study is, therefore, on the development of religious nationalism in the continuously tumultuous region of the Middle East. The aim of this researchis to investigate whether Islamism in Kurdistan is limited by the politics of nationalism, which is an accentuated example for the whole Middle East region. Furthermore, it should be noted that many of the religious nationalists themselves have not yet fully acknowledged the existence of the trend of merging between Islamism and nationalism. For instance, although the position of the Muslim Brotherhood of Kuwait, during the liberation of their state from the Iraqi regime, is a clear example of religious nationalism, all other affiliations of this organisation around the world at that time viewed the military operation as a foreign occupation. Highlighting this historical juncture in the political life of the Middle East by studying the Islamism in the Kurdistan region helped to elaborate on this new type of politics exceptionally well. This is essentially due to the absence of a politically recognised nation state which renders Kurds to be particularly susceptible to various manifestations of nationalism. The key finding of this project was, therefore, the notion that Islamism in Kurdistan has become significantly framed by the politics of nationalism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:732657 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mustafa, Mohammad Salih |
| Contributors | Githens-Mazer, Jonathan |
| Publisher | University of Exeter |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/30444 |
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