The nation-state’s power claim drives Islamism’s focus on the state.

Evidence

A second, related, point is that Islam is still the most acceptable, indeed in times of crisis the only acceptable, basis for authority. Political authority, even in an authoritarian polity, requires some legitimacy. It can be maintained for a while by mere force, but not indefinitely, not over large areas for long periods. Power seeks legitimacy, and attains it more effectively, among Muslims, from Islam rather than from national or patriotic or even dynastic claims, still less from the Western notion of national or popular sovereignty. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1471 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Throughout Islam the small group and the great faith, the tribe and the urnrnah, have been the principal foci of loyalty and commitment, and the nation state has been less significant. In the Arab world, existing states have legitimacy problems because they are for the most part the arbitrary, if not capricious, products of European imperialism, and their boundaries often did not even coincide with those of ethnic groups such as Berbers and Kurds. These states divided the Arab nation, but a Pan-Arab state, on the other hand, has never materialized. In addition, the idea of sovereign nation states is incompatible with belief in the sovereignty of Allah and the primacy of the urnrnah. As a revolutionary movement, Islamist fundamentalism rejects the nation state in favor of the unity of Islam just as Marxism rejected it in favor of the unity of the international proletariat. The weakness of the nation state in Islam is also reflected in the fact that while numerous conflicts occurred between Muslim groups during the years after World War II, major wars between Muslim states were rare, the most significant ones involving Iraq invading its neighbors. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 474 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A state channels domestic religious zeal outward to protect its own rule. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1904; Islamism presupposes and works through the Western-imposed nation-state rather than rejecting it. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 965; The nation-state has weaker legitimacy in Islam than tribe and faith — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 474 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslim political authority derives legitimacy from Islam more than from nation or sovereignty #complicates (0.78) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1471
• The nation-state has weaker legitimacy in Islam than tribe and faith #complicates (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 474