Ethnicity, Religion And Multiethnic Cultures

Ethnicity, Religion, and Multiethnic Cultures
Jason Jordan
Saint Leo University

Introduction
There are many factors that we use to define ourselves. Ethnicity is the most complicated factor that we use to identify who we are because it involves many aspects of our lives that can be common across many other areas including religion, national origin, language, and race. In the academic world, there is a conflict about the theoretical meaning of ethnicity across these specific areas. The American idea of ethnicity involves minorities and their relation to the greater nation-state, while the European tradition leans more toward nationalism with regard to decent and geographic location, yet they both have centralization on race in the more
The idea of religion as an identifier can become confusing because people from different ethnic groups can share a common religion, but not a common ancestry, language, or geographic location and are therefore, ethnically different. The same can be said for people of a common geographic location. For example, in Iraq, the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds share a common geographic location, language, and nationality, but have different religious beliefs and are segregated into different ethnic groupings. The general idea seems to stem from the preferences of the specific group as to which factors they wish to use to identify themselves. Americans generally categorize by race, Europeans by ancestry, and Arabic peoples by geographic location; however, they all include an aspect of religious identification. This seems to be a major factor for multiethnic cohesion and for ethnic conflict. If we can understand why the factor of religion plays such an instrumental role in ethnic identification, we can get a better understanding about how multiethnic societies work and how through tolerance and understanding they can thrive. This can be understood by examining the conflicts that occur and how they are
Most religions teach the values of respect, community, love, equality, and justice. These values, when put into practice, can supersede all differences between individuals and groups, creating a level playing field where social interaction is fair. As previously discussed, we as individuals hold our religions close and attempt to live by their rules unconditionally. When we omit the other factors that define our ethnic groupings and use religion as the sole identifier, we can find a way to live together despite our differences. Religion is essentially the common factor of ethnic identity that joins obscure ethnic groups into a larger group. If viewed from this perspective, varying groups have a common ground to develop a mutual respect and understanding for one another. In democratic nations it is the government that leveled the playing field for unity, but in other nations where the political system creates an unfair playing field, it is up to the individual and the group to decide to unite, and the most common denominator for that process would be religion. In most of these types of environments, religion is a major aspect of daily life. It is though religion that individuals come together as groups that, in turn, form communities which evolve into a society. The limitation of this process rests on the will of the people to follow