Nationalism and Islamic Movements

The author has studied the relationship between Islamic movements and nationalistic movements in the Muslim countries. By Islamic movements he refers to sociopoliticaldevelopments under Islamic codes that target Western cultural assaults. The need for counterattacking cultural assaults by the West made these movements give priority toestablishment of Islamic rule and Islamic society. In this sense, they had clashes with laic ethnic movements. This research work distinguishes Islamic movements from the national movements and believes that their agreement is confined to the way of fighting only. The two movements, i.e. Islamic and ethnic, also shared common interests on realization of Islamic and national independent identity. The attention to independence paid by the Islamic movements made the Muslim nations owe their independence to the Islamic movements. The separation between national and Islamic movements can be seen in Egypt, while this separation is absent in Western Arab nations because it has resulted in a sort of unity against colonialism. As in eastern nations of the world of Islam from Iran to Indonesia the strong will to fight against colonialism has united the national and Islamicmovements. After independence, however, the national movement has tended toward laic system of thought. The difference of opinion between the Islamic movements andnational movements in the ruling systems has brought about creation of separate circles of power inside the movements.