Acceso usuarios
Reza Dehghani
After the church’s dominating influence waned in Europe and the idea of nationalism was developed by redefining church doctrines in the form of a set of shared beliefs, nation-states began to arise in Europe based on nationalism. Such developments that all had resulted from the socio-historical dynamics in European countries, led to the formation of powerful nation-states. However, this pattern was considered to be a weapon against religion when it was imported to the Middle East and countries like Iran and Turkey with basically no indigenous outcomes and solely based on their historical experience of dealing with the West. Nevertheless, religious traditions not only were not removed from the socio-political realms of life all at once, but contributed to the process of nation-state building as elements that can giving identity. Such elements evolved differently in Iran and Turkey in spite of many similarities, such as Muslim nations, the moral system of Islam, the spirit of Islamic amity and brotherhood. The Republic of Turkey emerged from Western modernism due to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, while the Iranian modern state formed based on Iranian history and culture, indeed, with an archaistic approach. The question that the present paper seeks to answer is, “how did the Islamic identity in Iran and Turkey influence the nation-state building process?” And given the fact that the process still exists, “how will be the impact of Islam on the new features of nation-states (citizen rights, civil society organizations, etc.)?” The study findings indicate that both Iranian and Turkish states have used Islam for the establishment and building of a nation-state based on the position of religious teachings and the clergy in their societies. The role of Islam was greater in Iran. In addition, the process of nation-building in Iran and Turkey has not ended yet, and it seems that there will be an Islamic conciliatory yet volatile approach to the new features of the nation-state building.
