BIG differences between religious nationalism and cultural nationalism

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

There are big differences between religious nationalism and cultural nationalism, and the sooner we, the civilized world, realize it the better. This is especially critical for a country like the US, which has the resources to aid insert groups (freedom movements?) in places of conflicts, and some times even make or break nations.

Cultural nationalism is pride in one's land, its traditions, an acknowledgement of its weaknesses, and a common aspiration for all of its people to move forward. All this, usually, with little or no hint of religious or ideological intolerance towards one another.

Religious nationalism, on the other hand, tends to include only one aspect of cultural nationalism. Pride in one's land, sure. Its traditions, more often not. A common aspiration for all of its people to move forward, no. Religious or ideological tolerance and acknowledgement of weaknesses are probably the worst casualties.

1. Take the example of Persia/Iran. Iranian nationalism today is largely driven by (Shia) Islam. Its traditions are important, sure, but not its pre-Islamic tradition. The Zoroastrianism, its indigenous religion and culture, was displaced rather quickly by oppressive economic sanctions (the Islamic Jizya) against the Dhimmi, any non-Muslim. Clearly, one cannot expect tolerance of any other religion like Christianity or Hinduism. The Shah's times were different; the popular revolution took the country back to its Islamic grafted roots.
• Most other countries that are today majority Islam have similar stories, of cultures past more or less buried in the sand, suppressed, with Islam either claiming all the glories for itself or the like.
• If this sounds like Islam bashing, show me other examples of a religion supplanting whole cultures in the way Islam has (and its influential adherents attempting to do so even today), and I hope you see my point.
2. What about Bangladesh and Pakistan? Religious nationalism has always held sway, although cultural aspirations of the Bengalis do bubble up once a while, with many Muslim women in Bangladesh continuing to wear the bindi, for one. Still, its large minority Hindu population is blatantly targeted while the world watches. When a Bangladeshi announces that its country's Islamic aspirations on a British TV show, none dares (or knows to) ask what its 10% Hindu population wants. The Pakistan/Bangladesh cases are well documented, so there isn't much for me to go into here.
3. In the Middle East, while some sections of the populations may be desirous of tolerant, progressive, secular societies, the Arab Spring has only brought right wing Islamic groups into power. Case in point, Egypt. 
• And, here is one major 'degrees of comparison' error most (even intelligent) people make. This is due to the 'right wing' label applied without regard to 'how far right and deep' a group is at. An American party being right wing and an Egyptian party being right wing are not the same thing! The American right winger isn't going to hold a sword to his neighbour to threaten that he convert, he's probably going to be vociferous about his economic theories. It's much easier to imagine the Egyptian right winger putting a sword to his Coptic Christian neighbour's neck.
4. I hate to see Kashmir having become one of those hotbeds of Islam-driven religious nationalism where cultural nationalism has no place, unless it is consistent with Islam. And what should worry Indians and the world alike is the lack of understanding of cultural nationalism among the majority of its political class, and most importantly the right way to deal with religious nationalism, which is not to be tolerated in any form, whether for the short term or the long term.

Overall, I don't see many examples of cultural nationalism in today's world. India, for sure. See this short video of a Canadian TV show with a Pakistani Canadian talking about India's secularism. [The title of the video might indicate this is some fringe video I pulled out of the depths of Youtube to prove a point about India being superior to India, but no. Tariq Fatah makes a wonderful point about Pakistanis not acknowledging their cultural oneness with India...] 

Most Western (Christian?) countries today appear to be very tolerant. I can certainly speak for the US and Canada, which are models for the rest of the world. However, their naivete in understanding the differences between cultural nationalism and religious nationalism, may well turn out to be extremely short-sighted for the future.