Page - 113 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

113 | www.limina-graz.eu hande Birkalan-Gedik | muslim | martyr | masculine tive, national or religious, communal identity. Rather, it is constitution- ally or “contractually” oriented. The combination of weak nationalism/ strong religionism represents pre-modern and thus pre-national cultures in which religion was pervasive as a communal identity (Ram 2008, 60). As for worldwide religious nationalism, Embree’s analysis of violent con- flict in a Muslim-Hindu communal context in India presents another per- spective: Embree takes the tensions between the competing visions of a just society, which have determined the social and political life (Embree 1990), where religious nationalism appears as a solution to an existing problem of religious difference. The case of Iran, however, should be considered through different lenses. As early as 1979, the clergy (known as mullahs) not only solidified central power, but also gained systemic control through an Islamic revolution. In this way, “[…] a new national entity came into being that was quite different from previous kinds of Muslim rule and the secular regime that the Shah ineptly attempted to build” (Juergensmeyer 1995, 386). Myanmar became an exemplary case of religious nationalism, where the Muslim minority is increasingly embracing Islam to fight against suppression based on their ethnic-religious identity. The case of Myanmar historically resembles the case of Muslims in the Russian Empire (Noack 2000) who tried to free themselves from imperial rule. All cases outlined above are tenable examples of religious nationalism in a global sense, while the version perpetuated by the AKP in Turkey offers yet another example. It is certain that since the establishment of the Turkish Republic Turkish national identity and the meaning of Islam and secular- ism have undergone radical changes and gained new meanings and usages . Considering this, should we perceive secular or religious (Muslim) nation- alisms as a different set of binary categories, or think about it in new direc- tions?2 Cultural anthropologist Jenny White’s understanding of “Muslim nationalism” can provide a partial answer to this question. White uses the term “as shorthand for relatively distinct patterns of self-identification, as national subjects based on certain forms of knowledge about what it means to be a Turk.” (White 2013, 11). According to White, Muslim nationalism “[…] is largely based on a cultural Turkism, rather than blood-based Turkish ethnicity, and imagines the nation as having more flexible Ot- Turkish national identity and the meaning of Islam and secularism have undergone radical changes and gained new meanings and usages. 2 On a criticism of binary opposi- tion of “secular” versus “religious” nationalism also see Hurd 2011.