Sectarian identity in pre-war Iraq did not govern family relationships.

Evidence

But the relentless reciprocity of mutual antagonism at the locality level has a wider provenance also: It is deeply embedded in the history of settler colonialism, imperialism, and different forms of nationalism. While the links between institutionalized religion and the national state are now less contentious, “religion” conceived as a set of lived experiences and practices drives the politics of memory, violence, and place and remains a political resource for nationalist conflicts over the state. While churches may have radically declining congregations, they remain repositories of collective (communal) memory that is materialized in the enduring sectarian geography of a city with major symbolic significance for Irish and British forms of nationalism. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 2302 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pre-national social identity was relational, not categorical. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 38; For Christian nationalists, family-policy stances serve political boundary-making, not personal morality — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 433; Pre-national Middle Eastern loyalty ran to religion, kin, and village, not nation. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1168 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Vernacular religion, not institutional belief, drives post-conflict sectarian division. #complicates (0.73) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 2302