On Umma and national culture

"I doubt that Bouyeri looks upon Holland as his home. The mere fact that he disconnected from Morocco does not make him embrace Dutch society. He sees himself as a citizen of a non-geographical community, the Muslim Umma. Bouyeri does not have friends who are secular Dutch. The Dutch friends he does have are converts. You have to stop thinking in national societies to understand this phenomena" (Snouck)

Discussing this issue over email, I got the following response:

It is necessary to recognize a "homeland" other than the one he was physically born in. sometimes it can be even an imaginary one like Palestine , Kurdistan or pre-1948 Israel (that's the essence of political Zionism).

Generally, a country emerges either through the principles of administration or culture.

An example for administration would be the US where a philophoy of organizing society was turned into a national creed (ie, "the American way"). In the case of culture, a group of people with a distinct culture is defined as a "nation". Their culture becomes the "national culture". They achieve self rule, often culminating with rule over other groups conveniently labeled as "minorities", and "upgrade" the culture to define the country's culture.

Most countries are of the latter group. That does not mean that people not of the original group cannot be citizens, but the national group (ie, the "majority") develops defensive labels and attitudes, such as "us" and "them", which lead to either animosity (perpetual strife), separation (levels of autonomy) or assimilation.

On the other hand a "national culture" can evolve, being influenced by the "other" culture it interacts with. This must be a gradual process , accepted willingly be the "majority" group.

European islamists want the best of both worlds. Obviously they wouldn't live long enough to do anything comparable in any Islamic country. They wouldn't give up the benefits European countries "award" them. But more than that - Europe is composed of mainly "cultural" countries. However, American social culture ("PC"), which has replaced European national feeling, asserts such identity to be "wrong". But still, rights that islamists would never get in America, they get in Europe , due to its cultural heritage.

They're committing the crime they accuse Zionism of doing - bringing a people with a distinct, defined culture to a land that already has one. They exploit the principle of "administration",which in Europe is relatively incidental, trampling the principle of culture, which is that which rationalizes and defines the very existence of the European nations. On one hand European culturalism is weak and they've introduced Moslems to the culture of bureaucratic-nationalism ("you can get anything if you fit the right criteria"). Islamic culture, ie the Umma, is so strong that rigid western concepts are trivially incidental for it. The Umma sweeps across the globe, learning the obstacles on its way, and adapting.