Islam approves loyalty towards the country, but not the sense of superiority, violence and injustice in the name of nationalism, said national vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Syed Sadatullah Husaini while addressing students in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Delivering a lecture on ‘Nation, Democracy, & Islam’, he said that human beings are inherently loyal to the nation.
The lecture was organized by Telangana State chapter of Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) in Islamic Center, Mehdipatnam.
Sadat apprised that nationalism was a modern terminology whose meaning evolved over the decades. Regarding the existing form of nationalism being enforced in the country, he called it integral nationalism.
Speaking on the sidelines of the program, Sadat said: “The integral nationalism, popularly termed as fascism or anti-individualism, banks on extreme sense of superiority.
“This kind of nationalism is inherently violent and often had a shorter lifetime. On the contrary, civic nationalism promoted by stalwarts such as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore in India lives longer benefiting masses” he noted.
On a question about display of nationalism and identity, Sadat said that in postmodern world multiple identities of a person coexist simultaneously with each identity being exclusive without superiority or priority.
Video: Full Lecture on Nation, Democracy & Islam
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOq8dcqQMP4]