Page 21 - Romanticism: A Weapon of Satan

Romantic Nationalism

ommonly, romanticism is understood as romance or the
Romantic movement of the nineteenth century, but besides
C these forms, romanticism is also closely related to certain
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political sentiments. Chief among them is "romantic nationalism,"
which appeared at the end of the nineteenth century, and exercised a
great influence in the world until the middle of the twentieth.
First, it must be clearly stated that our criticism is not against
nationalism per se, but against "romantic nationalism." There is a great
deal of difference between the two.

Fanatical Rage
Nationalism, in the most common sense of the term, refers to an
individual's love for his people and for his country. This is a good and
completely legitimate sentiment. Since it does not go against religion, it
has no damaging effect for humanity. Just as an individual's love for his
mother or father is a legitimate feeling, so also is love for the nation,
that nurtured him in a common faith and culture, a legitimate feeling.
Nationalistic sentiments become illegitimate when they become
irrational or overly passionate. If a person, out of love for his country,
begins, without justification, to harbour feelings of hostility towards
another nation, or tramples over the rights of other nations and
peoples in the interests of his own-for example, if he seizes their land
or confiscates their property-he has exceeded legitimate bounds. Or,
when he lets his love for his nation turn into a kind of racism, that is,
when he claims that his own nation is inherently superior to another,
he has adopted an irrational outlook.
God draws our attention to this irrational nationalism in the
Qu'ran. What is described in the following verses as "fanatical rage," is
a characteristic feature of societies who are divorced from the religion.
Those who disbelieve filled their hearts with fanatical rage-the
fanatical rage of the Time of Ignorance-and God sent down
serenity to His Messenger and to the believers, and bound them to
the expression of heedfulness which they had most right to and