Three Groups in Religious Nationalist States

Carlo Strenger wrote an interesting article about Israel in which he talked about Israeli society having no center (Israel today: A society without a center).  He argues that there are three groups in Israel, each powerful and trying to attract Israelis to its vision. However, there are not many overlaps among these groups and as they fight, it is clear that there is no common denominator of the Israeli society. Moreover, the differences between them are based on sacred values so no one is ready to compromise. The three groups, he identifies, are liberal Zionists, ultra-Orthodox and romantic nationalism.   

Liberal Zionists believe that Jews have a right to a state of their own but they also believe that now that this state has been established it should be a liberal democracy, with no discrimination based on gender, religion or ethnicity. For ultra-Orthodox or Haredim, religion is the most important thing and while a Jewish state helps, it is not necessary or central to their ideals. Romantic nationalists, as defined by Strenger, are those that link the religion with the land. Holy land was and always will be for the Jewish people and if somebody's rights are trampled because of this special link, then so be it.    

Strenger writes,

'The bitterness and the violent rhetoric of Israel’s political culture are largely due to this clash of three sacred values, with sometimes extreme consequences. The settler movement has already shown that it is capable of extreme violence when the two-state solution is about to be implemented. Haredim have proven that they are willing to go to prison to avoid what they see as fatal infringements on their way of life.'

Looking at other states that are based on religious nationalism, we can find these three groups in all of them. To make their titles more broad and applicable to other states, we can call the three groups: liberals, other-worldly religious and holyland religious.

Liberals do not contest the formation of state on the basis of religion but now want a liberal democracy. Their eventual aim maybe to move closer to a civic nationalism.

Other-worldly religious are more interested in their place in the next world than this world. They are trying to be part of a heavenly kingdom and not very interested in making a kingdom here. For them, if state helps in observing/practicing their religion than it is good but as power and focus on this world invariably corrupts so they always keep a distance from state affairs.

    

Holyland-religious group is focused on holyland. Land is holy because of religion but it is almost as important. This group believes that a specific land is for a specific religion or its adherents. So, in this land, a particular religion should reign supreme. For them, minorities will always remain second-class citizens.

Many of the religious nationalists states are ruled by this last group as it employs power of both religion and nationalism while other groups use only one. Holyland-religious is also more ready to use violence as compared to other two groups to achieve its objectives.