Pakistan Unlike the
secular form of nationalism which is espoused in most other countries,
Pakistani nationalism is religious in nature, consisting of Islamic nationalism. Muslim nationalism is an essential part of the creation of Pakistan. Before India's independence, the
All India Muslim League first espoused the interests of India's Muslim minority and in the face of the impending independence of India, switched its position to demand freedom from India's Hindu majority in the form of the creation of Pakistan. While religion was the basis of the Pakistani nationalist narrative the country's creation can easily be seen as the one form of the culmination of Muslim nationalism in South Asia, especially of the kind of Muslim nationalism lead by
Muhammad Ali Jinnah's
All India Muslim League. Pakistani nationalism is closely associated with Muslim heritage, the religion of Islam, and it is also associated with pan-Islamism, as it is described in the
Two-nation theory. It also refers to the consciousness and the expression of religious and ethnic influences that help mould the national consciousness.
Pakistan has been called a "global center for
political Islam."
Bosnia and Herzegovina In
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Islam plays a significant role in
Bosniaks' national identity.
Alija Izetbegović, who later became Bosnia and Herzegovina's first independent leader, issued the
Islamic Declaration during the
Yugoslav era, emphasizing the differences between
Muslims and the surrounding
South Slavs, who adhered to various Christian denominations.
Palestine Hamas views
Palestine as a holy land and considers it a primary front for
jihad, framing its resistance as an Islamic way of fighting
Israeli occupation. The group has sought to fuse Islamism with
Palestinian nationalism, presenting itself as a nationalist movement with an Islamic nationalist agenda, distinct from
secular nationalist movements. Article 12 of the
1988 Hamas charter asserts that "Nationalism from the point of view of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part and parcel of religious ideology."
Xinjiang/East Turkestan The
Turkestan Islamic Party is an
Al-Qaeda-inspired
Uyghur nationalist,
pan-Turkist, and
jihadist organization seeking to create an
Islamic state based around
Sharia law called "
East Turkestan" which would immediately include all of the
Chinese province of
Xinjiang, with the gradual goal of including parts of
Turkey and
Pakistan and all of
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan, and
Afghanistan. They have been in contact with other
Salafi jihadist movements for decades, with direct financing from
Osama bin Laden and connections with the
Taliban,
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan,
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, and
Pakistani government. However, after the
Taliban victory in 2021, the TIP was expelled by the
new government in hopes of receiving
development aid from
China. TIP also has a
branch in Syria which has been aligned with the
Free Syrian Army, and more recently with the new
Syrian transitional government. The Syrian branch has been known for various human rights abuses, including the use of
child soldiers and participating in the
Alawite genocide of 2025.
Iran The
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran has been considered as having an ideology similar to Islamic nationalism. == References ==