The Global Rise of

Religious Nationalism
Mark Juergensmeyer

As we see every day in the news, a disturbing aspect of the globalization of religion is
the violent conflicts, worldwide, that are rooted in religion or expressed in religious
terms. To author Mark Juergensmeyer, such conflicts are expressions of religious
nationalism, an ideology that combines traditional religious beliefs in divine law and
authority with the modern notion of the nation-state. Frequently associated with
quests for ethnic autonomy, religious nationalism draws on a religion as a repository
of powerful symbols, ready to be tapped and put into action, as politics come to be
seen in religious terms. Citing examples from across the globe, Juergensmeyer
identifies patterns common to all such movements, discerning surprising similarities
in such cases as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Iranian revolution of
1979.
The present article was originally published shortly before the World Trade Center
tragedy of September 11, 2001. Readers may wish to consult Juergensmeyer's books
on this topic, including Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious
Violence (University of California Press, 2000).

If it can be said that the modernist ideology of the Their enemies seem to most of us to be both
post-Enlightenment West effectively separated benign and banal: modern secular leaders such as
religion from public life, then what has happened Indira Gandhi and Yitzhak Rabin and such
in recent years––since the watershed Islamic symbols of prosperity and authority as
revolution in Iran in 1979––is religion's revenge. international airlines and the World Trade Center.
After years of waiting in history's wings, religion The logic of their ideological religious view is,
has renewed its claim to be an ideology of public although difficult to comprehend, profound, for it
order in a dramatic fashion: violently. From contains a fundamental critique of the world's
Algeria to Idaho, a legion of religious activists post-Enlightenment sect culture and politics. In
have expressed a hatred of secular governments many cases, especially in areas of the world where
that exudes an almost transcendent passion, and modernization is a synonym for Westernization,
they dream of revolutionary changes that will movements of religious nationalism have served
establish a godly social order in the rubble of what as liberation struggles against w their supporters
the citizens of most secular societies regard as perceive to be alien ideologies, and foreign
modern, egalitarian democracies. powers.
"Palestine is not completely free," a leader of
Hamas's policy wing told me, "until it is an
Mark Juergensmeyer, "The Global Rise of Religious Islamic state." The Hamas activist voiced this
Nationalism," in RELIGIONS/GLOBALIZATIONS: opinion only a few months before the January
THEORIES AND CASES, pp. 66-83. Copyright © 1996 elections, an event that not only brought
2001 by Duke University Press. Reprinted by Yasir Arafat triumphantly into power but also
permission of the publisher. fulfilled the Palestinian dream of an independent

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nation. Yet it was not the kind of nation that the terrorist incidents: the bombing of the federal
Islamic activist and his Hamas colleagues had building in Oklahoma City on 19 April 1995, for
hoped for. For that reason, they refused to run instance, or the 20 March 1995 nerve gas attack
candidates for public office and urged their on a Tokyo subway station. In the Oklahoma City
followers to boycott the polls. They threatened case, the Christian militia movements with which
that the movement would continue to carry out Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols have been
"political actions" as the Hamas leader called associated have accepted a certain conspiratorial
them––terrorist attacks such as the series of view of American politics: the nation is not free,
suicide bombings conducted by a militant faction they reason, because of a vast international
that rocked Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere in conspiracy involving Jews and Freemasons. They
Israel in February and March 1996, threatening to believe that the nation needs to be liberated
destroy the peace process and Arafat's fragile through an armed struggle that will establish
alliance. America as an independent and Christian nation.
On the Israeli side of the border, Jewish Strangely, the same conspiracy was
activists have also attacked the secular leadership articulated by members of Aum Shinrikyo (On
of their nation, and again a virulent mixture of Supreme Truth), the eclectic Buddhist-Hindu
religion and politics has led to bloodshed. Yigal religious movement in Japan that has been
Amir, who is accused of assassinating Israel's accused of unleashing canisters of nerve gas in a
prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv on 4 Tokyo subway station, killing twelve people and
November 1995, claimed that he had religious injuring thousands. A young man who had been
reasons for his actions, saying that" everything I public affairs officer for the main Tokyo
did, I did for the glory of God." Amir has headquarters of the movement at the time said that
adamantly rejected attempts by his lawyers to the first thing that came to his mind when he
assert that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. heard about the attack was that the "weird time
"I am at peace” he explained, insisting that he was had come": the Third World War was about to
"totally normal." His murder of Rabin, Amir begin. He had been taught by his spiritual master,
argued, was deliberate and even praiseworthy Shoko Asahara, that Armageddon was imminent.
under a certain reading of religious law that He had also been taught that the Japanese
allows for a defense against those who would government, in collusion with America and an
destroy the Jewish nation. international network of Freemasons and Jews,
A few weeks before the assassination, a had triggered the January 1995 Kobe earthquake
conversation with Jewish activists near Hebron and then planned the nerve gas attack. He was
indicated that they shared many of Amir's views. surprised when Asahara himself was implicated in
They were still grieving over the killing of Dr. the plot––after alt the spiritual leader had
Baruch Goldstein by an angry Muslim crowd in portrayed himself as the protector of Japanese
February 1995, after he murdered thirty-five society and had begun to create an alternative
Muslims as they were saying their prayers in the government that would control the country after
mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs, revered as Armageddon had ended.
the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In all these cases, the alleged perpetrators
Goldstein's grave has now been made into a possessed world views that justified the brutality
shrine. The militant Jews at the site explained that of such terrorist acts: they perceived a need to
acts such as Dr. Goldstein's were necessary not defend their faiths and held a heady expectation
only to protect the land but also to defend the very that what they did would lead to radically new
notion of a Jewish nation––one that for reasons of social and political orders. The events they staged
redemption and history had to be established on were therefore religious as much as they were
biblical terrain. Religious duty required them to political and provide examples of religious
become involved politically and even militarily. involvement and political change that might seem,
"Jews" one of them said, "have to learn to worship at first glance, to be curiously out of step with the
in a national way." twentieth century.
This potentially explosive mixture of But these religious rebels against modernity
nationalism and religion is an ingredient even in are becoming increasingly vocal. Their small but
incidents that might appear initially to be isolated potent groups of violent activists represent

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growing masses of supporters, and they exemplify opposite: it religionizes politics. It puts political
currents of thinking that have risen to counter the issues and struggles within a sacred context.
prevailing modernism the ideology of Compatibility with religious goals becomes the
individualism and skepticism that in the past three criterion for an acceptable political platform.
centuries has emerged from post Enlightenment The Islamic revolution in Iran, for instance,
Europe and spread throughout the world. For that was a classic example of ideological religious
reason, and because of the rising tide of violence nationalism that turned ordinary politics upside
associated with movements of religious down. Instead of a nonreligious political order
nationalism in the Middle East, South Asia, and providing space for religious activities––which in
elsewhere, it is important to try to understand the West we regard as the "normal" arrangement–
what religious nationalists want: why they hate –in Iran, a religious authority set the context for
secular governments with such a virulent passion, politics. In fact the constitution of the Islamic
how they expect to effect their virtually Republic of Iran provides for a "just ruler” a cleric
revolutionary changes, and what sort of social and such as the Ayatollah Khomeini, who will be the
political order they dream of establishing in their ultimate arbiter in legislating the moral basis of
own vision of a coming world order. politics. For that reason, the Iranian experience
was a genuine revolution, an extraordinary change
The Ideological Dimensions from the modern Westernized nation that the Shah
of Religious Nationalism prior to the Ayatollah had imagined for Iran.
Because ideological religious nationalism
Some forms of religious nationalism are largely embraces religious ideas as the basis for politics,
ethnic––that is, linked to people and land. The national aspirations become fused with religious
struggle of the Irish––both Protestant and quests for purity and redemption, and religious
Catholic––to claim political authority over the law replaces secular law as the pillar of
land in which they live is a paradigmatic example. governmental authority. Although the enemy of
The attempts of Muslims in Chechnya to assert ethnic religious nationalists is a rival ethnicity––
their independence from the rule of Russia, and usually the dominant group that has been
other Muslims in Tajikistan to assert a cultural controlling them––ideological religious
element to Tajikistan's resurgent nationalism, are nationalists do not need to look beyond their own
examples that have emerged in the wake of the ethnic community to find an ideological foe: they
collapse of the former Soviet Union. In what used often loathe their own kind. As Yigal Amir
to be Yugoslavia, several groups of ethnic dramatically illustrated when he shot Yitzhak
religious nationalists are pitted against one Rabin, religious nationalists may target as
another: Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and enemies the secular leaders of their own nations.
Muslim Bosnians and Kosovars. In South Asia, For that reason, tensions have been growing in
the independence movements of Sri Lankan Tamil nominally Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia,
Hindus, Kashmiri Muslims, and to some extent Pakistan, and Turkey, where militant Islamic
the Khalistan supporters in the Punjab are also revolutionaries have identified their own moderate
movements of ethnic religious nationalism. In Muslim leaders as obstacles to progress. In the
these cases, religion provides the identity that United States, it appears that this passionate
makes a community cohere and links it with a hatred of secular government led to incidents such
particular place. as Ruby Ridge and the bombing of the federal
Ideological religious nationalism is attached building in Oklahoma City. In India, a widespread
to ideas and beliefs. In using the term "ideology” I disdain for secular politics has propelled the
mean a framework of values and moral positions. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into becoming the
In the case of religious nationalism, the ideology largest movement for religious nationalism in the
combines traditional religious beliefs in divine world. Buddhist movements in Sri Lanka,
law and religious authority with the modern Mongolia, and Tibet have characterized their
notion of the nation-state. If the ethnic religious secular political opponents as being not just
nationalism politicizes religion by employing immoral and unprincipled but also enemies of
religious identities for political ends, an dhammic (righteous) social order.
ideological form of religious nationalism does the Some religious nationalists see their own

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secular leaders as part of a wider, virtually global immediately before and after the January 1996
conspiracy––one controlled by vast political and elections––a poll that Hamas wished to discredit.
economic networks sponsored by European and The leaders of the movement believed, as their
American powers. For that reason, they may hate founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin said in a
not only the politicians in their home countries but conversation several years ago, that "the only true
also these leaders' political and economic allies in Palestinian state is an Islamic state." This means
lands far beyond their own national boundaries. that the movement must simultaneously war
Islamic militants associated with Egypt's radical against both Israeli leaders such as Rabin and
Gamaa i-Islamiya (Islamic Group), for example, Peres and secular Palestinian leaders such as
have attacked not only Egyptian politicians–– Arafat.
killing President Anwar Sadat and attempting to Like the militant Muslims in Hamas, the Sikh
kill his successor, Hosni Mubarak––but also separatists that flourished in Northern India until
foreigners. 1993 were both ethnic and ideological and, like
The Gamaa i-Islamiya literally moved its war their Palestinian counterparts, also had a double
against secular powers abroad when its leader, set of enemies. In the Sikh case, the Khalistani
Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, moved to New Jersey side of the movement aimed at creating a separate
and became involved in a bombing attack on the nation of Sikhs and tried to purge the rural Punjab
World Trade Center on 26 February 1993 that of Hindus. But there was also a more
killed six and injured a thousand more. The trial ideologically religious side to the movement, the
that convicted him in January 1996 of conspiracy one led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale,
in the attack also implicated him in an elaborate which aimed at establishing the Sikh religious
plot to blow up a variety of sites in the New York tradition as authoritative in both secular and
City area, including the United Nations buildings political spheres and targeted moderate Sikh
and the Lincoln Tunnel. Algerian Muslim activists leaders and secular politicians as foes. Followers
have brought their war against secular Algerian of this wing succeeded in assassinating several
leaders to Paris, where they have been implicated important secular politicians including Prime
in a series of subway bombings in 1995. Hassan Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. A spectacular
Turabi in Sudan has been accused of orchestrating explosion that killed Punjab's chief minister,
Islamic rebellions in a variety of countries, linking Beant Singh, on 31 August 1995, shows that some
Islamic activists in common cause against what is aspects of the movement are still potent threats to
seen as the great satanic power of the secular civil order.
West. In some cases, this conspiratorial vision has Other movements of religious nationalism––
taken bizarre twists, as in the view shared by both even ones that appear to be primarily ethnic––may
the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo and certain also have, at some level an ideological
American Christian militia movements that Jews component. This is so because religion, the
and Freemasons are collaborating to control the repository of traditions of symbols and beliefs,
world. stands ready to be tapped by those who wish to
Often religious nationalism is "ethno- develop a new framework of ideas about social
ideological” in that it is both ethnic and order. In the case of the former Yugoslavia, for
ideological in character. Such religious example, the anger of Serbs frequently described
nationalists have double sets of enemies: their in the media as the residue of ancient ethnic
ethnic rivals and the secular leaders of their own rivalries––is also fueled by an imaginative
people. Their efforts at delegitimization are "split" religious myth. The Serb leaders are Orthodox
between secular and religious foes. The Hamas Christians who see themselves as surrogate Christ
movement in Palestine is a prime example. While figures in a contemporary political understanding
waging a war of independence against Israel they of the Passion narrative. A drama and an epic
are simultaneously sparring with Yasir Arafat; poem have been invented to retell the New
often the attacks leveled at Israelis are also Testament's account of Christ's death in a way that
intended to wound the credibility of Arafat's portrays historical Serbian leaders as Christ
fledgling Palestinian Authority. It is not a figures, and Muslims in both Bosnia and Kosovo
coincidence that the Hamas suicide bombings as Judases. This mythologized dehumanization of
aimed at Israelis increased in the months the Muslims allows them to be regarded as a

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subhuman species, one that in the Serbian fifteen years have had significant social
imagination deserves the genocidal attacks of repercussions. The public sense of insecurity that
"ethnic cleansing" that killed so many in the has come in the wake of these changes is felt not
darkest hours of the Kosovo conflict and the only in the societies of those nations that are
Bosnian civil war. As these cases show, there is economically devastated by the changes––
often a fine line between ethnic and ideological especially countries in the former Soviet Union––
forms of religious nationalism. but also in economically stronger areas as well.
In general, ethnic religious nationalism is The United States, for example, has seen a
easier for modern Americans and Europeans to remarkable degree of disaffection with its political
understand, even though it may be just as violent leaders and witnessed the rise of rightwing
as ideological nationalism. The London terrorist religious movements that feed on the public's
bombings by the Irish Republican Army after the perception of the immorality of government. At
cease-fire broke down in February 1996, and the the extreme end of this religious rejection are the
Sri Lankan Tamils' suicide attacks that militant Christian militias and cults such as
demolished downtown Colombo in January 1996, Waco's Branch Davidian sect. Similar movements
are examples. Yet these acts of violence are have emerged in Japan, which is also experiencing
understandable because they are aimed at a disillusion about its national purpose and destiny.
society that the terrorists regard as exerting direct As in America, the critique and sectarian
military or political control over them. The experiments with its alternatives often take
violence of ideological religious movements is religious forms, including new religious
focused on those who are ideologically different– movements such as Soka Gakkai, Agon-shu, and
–secularists––and whose control over them may the now infamous Aum Shinrikyo.
be cultural and economic, and therefore less The global shifts that have led to a crisis of
obvious. But their impact on the changing shape national purpose in developed countries have, in a
of global politics is perhaps even more profound. somewhat different way, affected developing
nations as well. Leaders such as India's Jawaharlal
The Logic of Ideological Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Iran's
Religious Nationalism Riza Shah Pahlavi had once been pledged to
creating versions of America––or a kind of cross
Since the mid-1980s, I have been following between America and the Soviet Union––at home.
movements of ideological religious nationalism in But a new generation of leaders is emerging in
various parts of the world with the hope of countries that were formerly European colonies,
discerning common patterns or themes within and they no longer believe in the Westernized
them. Although each movement is shaped by its vision of Nehru, Nasser, or the Shah. Rather, they
own historical and social context, there are some are eager to complete the process of
common elements due in part to the massive decolonization. They want to assert the legitimacy
economic and political changes of this moment in of their countries' own traditional values in the
history, an experience that has been shared by public sphere, and to build a "postcolonial"
many around the world. What follows, then, is an national identity based on indigenous culture. This
attempt to identify the stages in development of eagerness is made all the more keen when
ideological religious nationalism that has resulted confronted with the media assault of Western
from this common experience, beginning with the music, videos, and films that satellite television
disaffection over the dominance of modern now beams around the world, and which threaten
Western culture and what is perceived to be its to obliterate local and traditional forms of cultural
political ally, secular nationalism. expression.
The result of this disaffection with the culture
Despair over Secular Nationalism of the modern West has been what I have called a
"loss of faith" in the ideological form of that
The shifts in economic and political power culture, secular nationalism. Although a few years
that have occurred following the breakup of the ago it would have been a startling notion, the idea
Soviet Union and the sudden rise and fall of has now become virtually commonplace that
Japanese and other Asian economies in the past nationalism as we know it in the modern West is

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in crisis, in large part because it is seen as a imperialism to think of them in any other way.
cultural construction closely linked with what Those who hold this view would solve the
Jürgen Habermas has called "the project of problem of secular nationalism by replacing what
modernity." Increasingly we live in a they regard as an inappropriate religion,
multicultural, postmodern world where a variety "Westernism” with Islam or some other religion
of views of nationhood are in competition, and the related to the local population.
very concept of nationalism has become a matter At the same time that religion is solving
of lively debate among scholars. It has become political problems, politics can help to solve
even more important––a matter of political life religious ones. In the view of Messianic Zionists
and death––to leaders of nations that are still such as Dr. Baruch Goldstein and his mentor,
struggling to establish a sense of national identity, Rabbi Meir Kahane, for example, the redemption
and for whom religious answers to these questions of the world cannot take place until the Messiah
of definition have extraordinary popular appeal. comes, and the Messiah cannot return until the
biblical lands including the West Bank––are
Seeing Politics in a Religious Way restored to Jewish control. "Miracles don't just
happen," Kahane said in a conversation in
The second step in the development of Jerusalem a year before he was assassinated in
ideological religious nationalism is the perception New York City by Muslims associated with Sheik
that the problem with politics is, at some level, Omar Abdul Rahman's New Jersey mosque.
religious. This means "religionizing" politics, as I Referring to the return of the Messiah, which he
described it earlier in this essay, in two ways: by felt could only come after Jews had created the
showing that political difficulties have a religious right political conditions, Kahane said, "Miracles
cause, and that religious goals have a political are made."
solution. If one looks at politics from a religious Some Messianic Jews think that the correct
perspective, it may appear that secular nationalism conditions for the return of the Messiah include
has failed because it is, in a sense, religiously the reconstruction of the Jerusalem temple
inadequate. As one of the leaders of the Iranian described in the Bible on its original site––now
revolution put it, secular nationalism is "a kind of occupied by the Muslim shrine, the Dome of the
religion." He went on to explain that it was not Rock. Some of these activists have been
only a religion but one peculiar to the West, a implicated in plots to blow up the shrine in order
point that was echoed by one of the leaders of the to hasten the coming of the Kingdom. One who
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Behind this charge served time in prison for his part in such a plot
is a certain vision of social reality, one that said that the rebuilding of the temple was a
involves a series of concentric circles. The "national obligation" for the sake of redemption, a
smallest are families and clans; then come ethnic political position for which Israel should make
groups and nations; the largest, and implicitly "no compromise."
most important, are religions, in the sense of Religious activists who embrace traditions
global civilizations. such as Millenarian Christianity and Shiite Islam,
Among these are to be found Islam, which have a strong sense of the historical
Buddhism, and what some who hold this view call fulfillment of prophecy, look toward a religious
"Christendom" or "Western civilization" or apocalypse that will usher in a new age. The
"Westernism." Particular nations such as leader of Aum Shinrikyo, borrowing Christian
Germany, France, and the United States, in this ideas from the sixteenth century French astrologer
conceptualization, stand as subsets of Nostradamus (Michel de Nostredame), predicted
Christendom/Western civilization; similarly, the coming of Armageddon in 1999 in the form of
Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and other nations are World War III after which the survivors––mostly
subsets of Islamic civilization. From this vantage members of his own movement––would create a
point, it is both a theological and a political error new society in the year 2014, led by Aum-trained
to suggest that Egypt or Iran should be thrust into "saints." Activists in other religious traditions may
a Western frame of reference. In this view of the see a righteous society being established in a less
world, they are intrinsically part of Islamic, not dramatic manner, but even Sunni Muslims,
Western, civilization, and it is an act of Hindus, and Buddhists have articulated a hope for

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a political fulfillment of their notions of religious when both the Shah and President Carter were
society. They believe that "dharmic society can be referred to as Yazid (in this context an "agent of
established on earth" as one activist Buddhist satan"). "All the problems of Iran" the Ayatollah
monk in Sri Lanka put it, by creating a religious Khomeini elaborated, are "the work of America."
state. By this he meant not only political and economic
problems but also cultural and intellectual ones,
Identifying the Enemy fostered by "the preachers they planted in the
religious teaching institutions, the agents they
Perceiving politics in a religious way leads to employed in the universities, government
the next step, identifying who or what religious educational institutions, and publishing houses,
power is at fault when things go wrong. In a and the Orientalists who work in the service of the
religionized view of politics, the root of social and imperialist states." The vastness and power of
political problems is portrayed in religious terms. such a conspiratorial network could only be
An opposition religious group––perhaps a explained by its supernatural force.
minority group such as the Tamils in Sri Lanka, or
the Coptic Christians in Egypt––is sometimes The Inevitable Confrontation
targeted as the corrupting influence in public life.
Or the foe of religion may be seen as irreligion––a Once the enemy of religion has been
force opposed to religion altogether. The secular identified, the fourth step follows naturally: the
state could fit either of those categories, idea of cosmic war. There are parallels in many
depending on whether one sees it as the outcome religious movements to the idea of the coming
of a "religious" tradition––"Westernism"––or as Armageddon that was feared by both Christian
the handmaiden of those who are opposed to militia members in the United States and members
religion in any form. A great many religious of the Aum Supreme Truth in Japan. Rabbi Meir
activists regard anyone who attempts to curb the Kahane, for instance, spoke of God's vengeance
influence of religion––for example, by promoting against the Gentiles, which began with the
a civil society shaped by secular values––to be humiliation of the pharaoh in the exodus from
opposed to religion. Hence anyone who Egypt more than three thousand years ago and
encourages secularism is, in a sense, a religious continues in the present with the humiliation of
foe. Arab forces that resulted in the creation of Israel
The most extreme form of this way of and would come to a head in what Kahane
thinking is satanization. Some members of the expected would be a great struggle against Arabs
Christian militia in the United States refuse to pay and other corrupting forces in Israel in the near
taxes in part because they feel that the government future. "When the Jews are at war" Kahane said,
is controlled by an evil foreign power. During the "God's name is great." Another Israeli activist
early days of the Gulf War in 1991, the Hamas explained that "God always fights against His
movement issued a communiqué stating that the enemies” and that militants such as himself "are
United States II commands all the forces hostile to the instruments of this fight."
Islam and the Muslims" and singled out George Elsewhere I have argued that the language of
Bush, who, it claimed, was not only "the leader of warfare––fighting and dying for a cause––is
the forces of evil" but also "the chief of the false appropriate and endemic to the realm of religion.
gods." As this communiqué indicates, this line of Although it may seem strange that images of
reasoning often leads down a slippery slope, for destruction often accompany a commitment to
once secular institutions and authorities begin to realizing a more harmonious form of existence,
loom larger than life and take on a satanic luster, there is a certain logic at work that makes this
the conclusion rushes on that secular enemies are conjunction natural. In my view, religion is the
more than mortal foes: they are mythic entities language of ultimate order and for that reason
and satanic forces. provides those who use it with some way of
Even in 1997, Iranian politicians, without a envisioning disorder, especially the ultimate
trace of hyperbole, could describe America as the disorder of life: death. Most believers are
"Great Satan." This rhetoric first surfaced in Iran convinced that death and disorder on an ultimate
during the early stages of the Islamic revolution scale can be encompassed and domesticated.

472
Ordinarily, religion does this through images wanted to precipitate a confrontation where none
projected in myth, symbol, ritual, and legend. The had existed, or rather––in their mythologized view
cross in Christianity is not, in the eyes of the of the world––to bring to public attention the fact
faithful, an execution device but a symbol of that an extraordinary war, albeit an invisible one,
redemption; similarly, the sword that is a central was raging all around them. Their acts would
symbol of both Islam and Sikhism is proudly bring this cosmic confrontation to light.
worn by the most pious members of those faiths
not as weapons of death but as symbols of divine The Future of Religious Nationalism
power.
Thus violent images are given religious In a strange way, the point of all this terrorism and
meaning and domesticized. These violent images violence is peace. Or rather, it is a view of a
are usually symbols––such as the cross, or historic peaceful world that will come into being when the
battles, or mythical confrontations––but cosmic war is over, and when the vision of
occasionally the image of symbolic violence is not righteous order held by militant religious
a picture or a play but a real act of violence. The nationalists triumphs. The leader of the policy
sacrifice of animals and, of course, human wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement told me
sacrifice are examples from ancient traditions. that the bombings in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and
Today conceptual violence can be identified with elsewhere would ultimately "lead to peace." The
real acts of political violence, such as leader of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo––convicted for
firebombings and political assassinations. his alleged masterminding of the subway nerve
These religious acts of political violence, gas attack––prophesied that after a colossal global
although terribly destructive, are sanitized by conflict around the year 2000 involving nerve gas
virtue of the fact that they are religiously and nuclear weapons, a thousand years of peace
symbolic. They are stripped of their horror by would be ushered in, led by the coming of a new
being invested with religious meaning. Those who messiah who would establish a "paradise on
commit such acts justify and therefore exonerate earth."
them because they are part of a religious template What is common to these and virtually all
that is even larger than myth and history: they are other "terrorists"––as those of us who experience
elements of a ritual scenario that makes it possible their shocking violent actions usually regard
for people involved in it to experience the drama them––is their self-conception as peacemakers.
of cosmic war. They are soldiers in a war leading to peace. What
For that reason, it is necessary for the activists they do not agree on, however, is the kind of
who support such acts of terrorism to believe that peaceful world they want to bring about. This
a confrontation exists, even when it does not difference in political goals is caused not only by
appear to, and even when the other side does not a difference in religious backgrounds but by an
seem to provoke it. When one visits Gaza, one can uncertainty about what form of politics is most
feel a tremendous sense of anticipation among appropriate to a religiously defined nation.
many proHamas activists that the real battle for Yet the prognosis for peace in a world
freedom is yet to come, coupled with a deep increasingly filled with religious nationalists is
disappointment over the superficial freedom guarded. Ideological religious nationalism is a
resulting from the peace efforts of Yasir Arafat. It strident and difficult force in contemporary world
was as if the peace that Arafat was entering into affairs. As I have described in this essay, it
had been purchased too cheaply: it had not come follows a process that begins with a disaffection
as the result of an extraordinary denouement. with secular nationalism, then moves to
They expected––perhaps even wanted that perceiving politics in a religious way, identifying
eschatological moment of confrontation: some mortal enemies as satanic foes, and envisioning
great war that would usher in the beginning of the world as caught up in a cosmic confrontation,
their new age. The suicide attacks carried out by one that will ultimately lead to a peaceful world
young and remarkably committed Palestinians in order constructed by religious nations. The result
the months before and after the January 1996 of this process is a form of global order radically
elections were in some sense attempts to deny the different from secular versions of globalization, a
very normalcy that elections imply. It is as if they difference so severe that it could usher in a new

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cold war, an ideological confrontation on virtually the Soviet and American models of nationhood,
a global scale. they turned to their own past, and to their own
This process of religionizing politics, cultural resources.
however, is still mercifully rare. Most forms of Politicized religious movements are the
religion do not lead to religious nationalism. The responses of those who feel desperate and
reasons why the process begins and is nurtured are desolate in the current geopolitical crisis. The
to be found in the social and historical contexts in problem that they experience is not with God but
which it emerges. That is to say that the with politics, and with their profound perceptions
religionizing process I have described is largely a that the moral and ideological pillars of social
response to social and political crises. This is order have collapsed. Until there is a surer sense
certainly the case with the phenomenal growth of of the moral legitimacy of secular nationalism,
religious nationalism in recent years. The religious visions of moral order will continue to
common geopolitical crisis experienced appear as attractive solutions, and religious
throughout the world explains why there have activists will continue to attempt to impose these
been so many movements of religious nationalism solutions in violent ways, seeing themselves as
in such disparate religions and places within the soldiers in a cosmic drama of political
last ten years. redemption. Can these religious nationalists
In the present period of social turbulence and succeed? Certainly for a time. They may terrify
political confusion––which the collapse of the political leaders, shake regimes to their
Soviet Union and the decline of American foundations, and even gain the reigns of power in
economic power have created around the world–– unstable states such as Iran. But it remains to be
it was inevitable that new panaceas would emerge seen whether nations can long endure with only
that involved religion, sometimes perceived as the the intangible benefits that religious solutions
only stable rudder in a swirl of economic and provide.
political indirection. Moreover, as nations rejected

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