Religion-based identity in Islam predates Western secular nationhood.

Evidence

A second result is that religion—rather than country, language, descent or nationality—has been the primary basis and focus of identity and loyalty, that which distinguishes those who belong to the group and marks them off from others outside the group. The imported Western idea of ethnic and territorial nationhood has had an extraordinary impact; but it remains, like secularism, alien in origin and imperfectly assimilated. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1393

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates the representation-cluster theme: region made legible through the lens of West-imported categories. Pair with Said and Massad debates on whether Arab nationalisms are derivative. — connects to: The Persian term for nation originally designated a religious community. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1666; Religious identity, not nationality, structured medieval Muslim self-conception; Muslims fall back on religious over ethnic identity in times of emergency (+4 more)
• QUESTION: The claim about a single Muslim norm of identity-basis overstates sectarian and regional variation Lewis himself notes elsewhere — flag internal tension.