Middle Eastern national identity derives from religious communality rather than ethnicity

Evidence

Thus, millets were formally recognized as constituting religious groups that differed from the Islamic identity of the Ottomans, but they did in fact also represent a variety of ethnic (religious) collectivities with no claim to any territory as such. This is highlighted by Kemal Karpat, who notes ”… that the sense of identity and solidarity in all Middle Eastern ‘national’ states derives to a large extent from their sense of religious identity and communality instead of from feelings of ethnic and/or linguistic group solidarity” (Karpat 1988:37). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3470

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the classic Western social-science assumption (cited in 3468) that modernity erodes communal identities — this passage is the regional counter-evidence. — connects to: The Persian term for nation originally designated a religious community. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1666; Arab ethnicity is defined by language and culture, not religion; Arab ethnic identity is linguistic and cultural, distinct from Muslim religious identity.