Cultural Solidarity, Identity and the Islamic Ummah

The article explains three kinds of identity, namely social, political and cultural. Then it examines the existing solidarity among these three overlapping identities. The aim is to define the conceptual distinction between cultural solidarity and other kinds of solidarity in order to avoid a conceptual ambiguity in policy-making. By cultural solidarity we mean the shared sense of belonging as the result of attempting to maintain the components and factors of cultural identity. One example is the distinct forms of identity embodied in the concept of Ummah as understood by the Islamic approach and the role of identity and cultural solidarity even in the absence of other identities and solidarities.