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Originally Posted by irateplatypus
i'm sorry, but that's not true. nationalism is (admittedly) an amorphous term, but it's roots are certainly modern european (be they westphalian or from the french revolution.) check out the nationalism Wiki or any other source, i think you'll find it to be so. the medieval islamic constructs you alluded to were centered around the caliphate, perhaps the antithesis of nationalism. |
I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say. Nationalism may be a European construction, in that Europeans saw themselves as part of a (their) nation, and thought that they were different (better) from people from those other nations.
However, that feeling has been around for as long as you have human civilization. The ancient Greeks saw the people in their city states as different from foreigners. We have Aristotle describing Greek people (more specifically: people from the mediterranean) as being superior to the nordic races (who weren't intelligent enough), and to the asians (who weren't brave enough).
The same goes for the ancient Jews, who saw themselves as a distinct group, definately different from the rest. Muslims saw themselves as different from the infidels.
In short: the idea that a nationality matters may be new, but the idea that your group matters is not. Arab nationalism is just another example of that.