The hybridisation of religion and nationalism in Iraqi Kurdistan: the case of Kurdish Islam

ABSTRACT This paper asks two interlinked questions: 1) How do Kurdish Islamists navigate the dilemma of having to relate to Islamism and nationalism at the same time? 2) Why have Kurdish authorities in Iraq taken steps to centralise control over religious activities since 2014? The paper argues that nationalism and Islamism have a long history of being intertwined in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), a de facto state. Kurdish Islamists, even Salafis, must relate to Kurdish nationalism to keep their followers. But they also believe in the specificity of Kurdish culture and identity, and support Kurdish statehood. The hybridisation of Islamism and nationalism in KRI has gone further since 2014, attributable to new political pressures in the religious field after Daesh. Kurdish political authorities intervene in the religious field by bureaucratising Islam, co-opting Islamic figures and promoting Kurdish Islam. Our argument is that state co-optation of religion is a step in the process towards state- and nation-building, but it is also a way of taking greater control of society. Analysing the Kurdish case, our paper takes an empirical approach informed by contextual and case-sensitive knowledge.