When Politics are Sacralized: Comparative Perspectives on Religious Claims and Nationalism

Description

Over the years, there have been increasing intersections between religious claims and nationalism and their power to frame and govern world politics. When Politics Are Sacralized interdisciplinarily and comparatively examines the fusion between religious claims and nationalism and studies its political manifestations. State and world politics, when determined or framed by nationalism fused with religious claims, can provoke protracted conflict, infuse explicit religious beliefs into politics, and legitimize violence against racialized groups. This volume investigates how, through hegemonic nationalism, states invoke religious claims in domestic and international politics, sacralizing the political. Studying Israel, India, the Palestinian National Movement and Hamas, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iran, and Northern Ireland, the thirteen chapters engage with the visibility, performativity, role, and political legitimation of religion and nationalism. The authors analyze how and why sacralization affects political behaviors apparent in national and international politics, produces state-sponsored violence, and shapes conflict.

Nadim N. Rouhana is Professor of international Affairs and Conflict Studies and Director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. His most recent (edited) volume is Israel and its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State (2017). Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London. Her latest book is Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding (2019).