Page 95 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Politics in a Small World 81

therefore, with support for Islamic terrorism (Fortier, 2008 : 95 – 6). As a
result, Anne - Marie Fortier argues, young Muslims, and other racialized
“ insider - outsiders ” too, are required to demonstrate their loyalty and
belonging to the nation in ways that are not demanded of the majority
of British citizens (Fortier, 2008 ). In France, which has long considered
itself, and been considered as, exemplary of a civic nation, Muslim heads-
carves have been banned in schools which tolerated pupils wearing other
“ religious ” symbols, such as the cross. There is currently, as I write, an
attempt on the part of the French government to ban Muslim women
covering their faces anywhere in public. In a speech in June 2009, President
Sarkozy declared, “ That ’ s not our idea of freedom ” ( “ Degrading ’ Islamic
veils not welcome in France, ” says Sarkozy in historic speech, ” The
Guardian, 23 June 2009). It is clear that some are outside “ our ” nation
here, even if as citizens they live, work, raise children, pay taxes to the
state, and obey French law under which individuals have historically
enjoyed the freedom from state intervention to wear religious dress in
public places (though not necessarily in state institutions, coded secular)
if they please. This is not to say that debating the position of women
within particular communities should be forbidden – though it is certainly
paradoxical that the state here apparently wants to dictate autonomy
and equality to women (Benhabib, 2004 : 190). Great care is needed,
however, to ensure that issues are debated in their complexity, rather than
collapsing positions into stereotypes that confi rm majoritarian suspicions
of minorities as inherently unworthy to be included in the political
community.
The “ Others ” of national political communities are also external, most
commonly other nations. Most modern nations were formed through

relations of conflict and competition with other nations and peoples,
especially since the nineteenth century, as the form of the nation - state has
been generalized across the world (Balakrishnan, 1996 ). More or less
virulent forms of nationalism are the result of these, often long - standing,
confl icts. “ Hot ” nationalism may be somewhat out of date now amongst
sophisticated people in the West, especially on the Left, at least when a
nation is not actually at war, but as Michael Billig has taught us, “ banal
nationalism ” is evident in all sorts of signs that mark out the nation as
different from, and generally superior to, other nations (Billig, 1995 ).
One not - so - banal, example is the mediated mourning of members of the
nation in comparison with disregard for the lives of members of other
nations. This has been very marked in recent years in the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, as the media represents public displays of grief by
family, friends, and colleagues for Western soldiers killed there, whilst