The Comprehensiveness of Ummah as a Nation-building Concept

Abstract

Objectivist or subjectivist methods would be utilised in a nation-building process. The objectivist method seeks to shape a national identity based on linguistic, ethnic or religious unity among those individuals forming the nation concerned. Shaping the identity constructed upon such unity is not asked by the subjectivist method. This method recognises linguistic, ethnic or religious diversity as the enrichment of the national identity. It stimulates the individuals to show loyalty to their common history and to embrace common future goals while trying to shape their national identity underscoring the significance of solidarity and emotional unity. Ummah is generally regarded as a concept benefiting from the objectivist method and aimed at a nation-building process that is based on religious unity. The concept of ummah would indeed have concrete objectivist features in a methodological manner; however, it is also possible to take into account the subjectivist method in an ummah-oriented process. This article examines those constitutions entered into force in various Muslim-majority states in the 2000s and afterwards and answers which methods are used in their nation-building processes. According to the article, seven states – Bahrain, Palestine, Qatar, the Comoros Union, the Maldives, Syria and Tunisia – draw on the objectivist method whilst Sudan utilises its subjectivist counterpart. The other states scrutinised in this study – Afghanistan, Algeria, Chad, Morocco, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Niger, Senegal, Somalia and Turkmenistan – use a hybrid formula constructed on both objectivist and subjectivist cornerstones. All results reached via a normative analysis of constitutional law are also examined from a perspective of Islamic law, ultimately arguing that the concept of ummah would be acknowledged as a model of inclusive nation.