Nationalism is often extremely linked with religion and culture. Just look at the Bosnian war in the 90s.
Culture is always linked because nation (from ethnical nationalism point of view) and culture are basically the very same thing
And,yep, almost every many nationalist parties are linked with some religion, because majority of nations have one dominant culture. But please, don't try to prove me that IRA vs Britain is catholics vs protestants issue
Ukrainian Ranger, would you like a nice collection of mild-to-disgusting-outright-racist clichés on eastern europe and specifically ukraine from western europe and specifically france ? I find being on the receiving end sometimes help to relativize things .
Because if you, as an eastern european, see muslims as an inferior culture, you'd be surprised to hear what some westerners think of you.
edit: and trust me, being of a "white and christian" background won't saves you.
1) Feel free, that's quite interesting to hear. You may use PM if you don't want to post it here
2) I doubt that I'll get surprised
3) I bet that many of cliches are at least partially justified. Some are total nonsense. As usual
4) Don't call my intolerance to one specific religion racism. I don't care what color of skin Muslim has
5) I think that Arab\Persian\North Caucasian cultures are very beautiful, deep and interesting. (Can't say about Indonesian, Pakistani and others cultures.... I never encountered them on large scale. But I am sure that have a lot to offer to humanity, too) but, unfortunately, they are infected by harmful, destructive ideology. When they'll cure themselves ( I hope so) world will become a better place. Every Muslim country has growing secular movements, I wish them luck as they fight against tyranny. They are terrorized, they are tortured, they are killed.
In fact, back in 70s, Islam was much weaker than it is now. Somehow countries like Iran and Afghanistan reversed their course. I blame Cold War, as both USA and USSR funded outright bastards in the region
The problem is you don't take into account the same context for Islamists. Look at Palestinian terrorist for exemple. Yes, they shout Allah Akbar while shooting rockets at civilians, and they're clearly islamist. But the terrorists that today operate for Hamas are much similar in background and motive to those that worked for the secular PLO in the 70's.
The causes of Hamas violence has more in common with the IRA or ETA than with the repression in Saudi Arabia.
You are partially right, that's damn hard to separate nationalism and Islamism when they do terrorist attacks in occupied countries as Afghanistan, Palestine or North Caucasian countries inside Russian federation. That's a typical propaganda move to call all guys that fight against your occupation troops Islamists (Nazis\Communists\Spies\Bandits....)
But:
a) I am sure that Islamism makes guerrilla much more violent. Unnecessary violent
b) Islamic terrorism exist in non occupied countries.
c) Countries that are stable and Islamic, practice terrorism toward their own citizens.