The Struggle to Define a Nation

In the present edited volume, a serious of internationally recognised scholars adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of 'religious nationalism' and the 'nationalization' of religion, through focusing on case studies and the religious affiliations and denominations of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The aim of this book is to reconsider the ongoing debate between different communities of the so-called Islamic World regarding the nature of the nation and state, and the role of religion in a nation-state's institutional ground, both as a viable integrative or segregating factor. It is through focusing on the state dimension, as the subject of collective action or socio- cultural and political representation, that the book proposes to reconsider the relationship between religion, politics and identity in the perspective of 'religious nationalism' and the 'nationalization' of religion in the contemporary Islamic World.