Needing mass mobilization against a fellow-Muslim foe made revolutionary Iran embrace nationalism
Evidence
Nationalism was rejected initially as a secular, alien, and divisive ideology that had been perpetrated by the West and adopted by the Pahlavi rulers to undermine people’s faith and promote subservience to Western values and interests. But, in response to increasing public resistance to the regime’s suppression of nationalist symbols and rituals and the utility of nationalist slogans for mobilizing vast numbers of young people in the war against Iraq – a fellow Muslim country with a majority Shi’i population – the regime adopted its own nationalist claims and propaganda. … It religionizes politics. It puts political issues and struggles within a sacred context. Compatability [sic] with religious goals becomes the criterion for an acceptable political platform. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1748
Categorization
- XREF: Directly serves the reader’s core question: solidarity sustained during war demanded ideological flexibility — the regime manufactured a nationalist framing because youth mobilization against Iraq required it, contradicting its anti-nationalist stance. — connects to: The nationalist ideology needs a manufactured enemy to mobilize — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 303; Religious war rhetoric loses force and gives way to nationalism — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1730; Top-down secular nationalism failed in Iran because religion saturated daily life — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1748
- SEED: An angle on sacralized politics betraying its own principles for military necessity — when ‘the enemy’ becomes strategically useful, sacred ideology accommodates precisely what it denounced.
Broader Connections
- The nationalist ideology needs a manufactured enemy to mobilize
#exemplifies(0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 303 - Religious war rhetoric loses force and gives way to nationalism
#instantiates(0.70) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1730