Nationalism in Multi-Religious Nations: the Albanian and the United States Case

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that a nation can be created even if its members belong to different religious beliefs. The common religion is a component of nationalism. It plays a role in the consolidation of the shared identity of the members of its nation, so, in the consolidation of the nation itself. Many (or more or less all) nation states have no more than one religion which has supported the consolidation of their national identity. In fact there are few cases in which the members of a nation belong to diverse religious beliefs and almost no study has been focused on this subject. This essay is focused in the formation of the Albanian nation whose members belong to diverse religious beliefs. It studies the way in which Albanian nation took shape even though its members belonged to diverse religious beliefs. There were two ways which brought to the complete consolidation of the Albanian nation. The first one was the negligence toward different religious beliefs that Albanian patriots embodied to the members of their nation, and the second is the role its elites and the state played in the consolidation of the Albanian nation. The conclusions drawn from this case study are that the formation of Albanian nation required negligence toward different existing religious beliefs as well as their self-government in order to make them really Albanian. In other words, the consolidation of the Albanian nation was achieved because Albanians placed nationalism beyond religious beliefs and feelings. The Albanian case is supported by scholars' conclusions about the American nation -which is made of members belonging to different religions- who consider nationalism in the United States as "the most powerful religion in the United States" [Marvin C. - Ingle D. 1996]; a sentence perfectly suited for Albanian nationalism.