ABSTRACT
This chapter examines various movements of religious nationalism, including Hindu and Sikh partisans in India, militant Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Mongolia, Christian activists in eastern Europe and Latin America, right-wing Jewish politicians in Israel, and Islamic activists in the Middle East and Central Asia. It describes how traditional religion can play the same ideological role that secular nationalist theories play in providing a theoretical basis for a nation-state. The chapter shows religion and liberal democratic ideas are seen as competitive in both the West and the Third World. It explores a kind of resolution of this competition: the rise of a potent new synthesis between the nation-state and religion. In some cases a religious battle may preface the attempt to establish a new religious state. Secular nationalism was thought to be not only natural, but also universally applicable and morally right.
