Religious-nationalist antagonism originated in Western imperial heartlands, not just its colonies.
Evidence
While conventional academic wisdom suggests that it was the secular ideal of nationalism and the national state that was exported from Western Europe and the US to the rest of the world, the Irish example suggests that particular understandings of religion were deeply inscribed in this ideal from the start (Cavanaugh 2009). In principle, at least, it would appear that the links between religious and nationalist antagonisms first developed in the heartlands of Western imperialism. It follows that they should be examined within the same interpretative frame as contemporary examples of violent religious nationalism elsewhere. Similarly, given intellectual preoccupation with the return of religion to the public domain in the secular West, the Northern Ireland case raises the question of whether it ever left this domain in the first place. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 2311
Categorization
- SEED: Strong provocation for an essay or MOC line: if the ‘secular-modern vs violent-religious’ binary is inverted by the empirical record (Ireland first forged religious division in the metropole), then the claimed Western exception that the MOC treats as the default is itself the artifact.
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
- XREF: connects to: British imperialism first politicized religious division at home, not in its colonies. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 2312; Religious nationalist antagonism developed in the West before being exported elsewhere.; European secularism emerged by externalizing religious violence through colonialism (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Religious nationalist antagonism developed in the West before being exported elsewhere.
#corroborates(1.00) - European secularism emerged by externalizing religious violence through colonialism
#corroborates(0.75) - Orientalism originated as a Christian politico-theological project, not merely imperial ideology
#corroborates(0.75) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 69 - Revolutions either import or reject Western culture depending on nationalism type.
#qualifies(0.70)