Weak prewar religious affiliations rapidly hardened into lethal communal identities

Evidence

But as the war dragged on and the Iraqi side presented the conflict in ethnic terms (Arabs versus Persians) and received support from other Arab countries (with the exception of Syria), the regime’s religious rhetoric of sacrifice and martyrdom lost some of its persuasive power. It was combined with, and replaced largely by, nationalist propaganda that portrayed the war as a patriotic duty to defend the Islamic homeland against a Ba’athist Arab aggressor. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1730 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The situation was a familiar one in Islam. The West was to have plenty of opportunity to observe the corrosive effect of Moslem virtues when placed side by side with Christian virtues, and there was probably no way short of conquest or conversion by which the process could be arrested. But for a few years between 850 and 860, the sense of being gradually suffocated provoked a reaction among a handful of Christians, and led to protests—not so much against Islam as against the complacency of their fellow Christians—and to martyrdoms. — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 135 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Atheist state repression kept ethnic peace that religious identity destroyed.; Cultural coexistence corroded Christian identity until forced martyrdom protests — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 135; Close religious kinship intensifies rather than softens interfaith hatred (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious war rhetoric loses force and gives way to nationalism #complicates (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1730
• Cultural coexistence corroded Christian identity until forced martyrdom protests #complicates (0.78) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 135