Religious nationalism is the idea that religion and politics are closely related. According to Mark Juergensmeyer, there are two types of religious nationalism: ethnic and ideological. In his essay he explains the four stages that seem common to all religious nationalist movements around the world. Although not accurate, the footage he compiled came from his research on religious nationalism. The first type of religious nationalism described by Juergensmeyer is ethnic religious nationalism. Ethnic religious nationalism is the idea that the land and the people of that land are directly related to the religion and politics of that specific region and group of people. In ethnic and religious nationalism, “religion provides the identity that holds a community together and connects it to a particular place” (Juergensmeyer 3). Saying that, this religion can give an identity to a group of people and a nation and give people a sense of nationalism or pride in their origin. An example of this would be Muslims who pray and make pilgrimages to Mecca. The location of Mecca is not as important as the idea that the location on the map can unite millions of people every day. Another great example of ethnic and religious nationalism is the Japanese religion, Shintoism. After the signing of the 1889 Constitution, the Japanese government took control of approximately 110,000 Shinto shrines (Hope & Woodward 220). This state-supported form of Shintoism was created to bring unity and loyalty of the people to the Japanese nation. In fact, at that time there were no other religious institutions in Japan and the rulers of the state, the emperors, also served as religious leaders. Religion centered...... middle of paper ......b. November 10, 2011. Evans, CT “Iranian Revolution”. Nova online. 2000. Internet. November 19, 2011. .Farley, John E. “Current Debates: Affirmative Action, Immigration, and Race versus Class.” Majority-minority relations. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. 466-505. Print. Hopfe, Lewis M. and Mark R. Woodward. “Shintoist”. World religions. 11th ed. New York: Vango, 2009. 213-23. Print.Juergensmeyer, Mark. “The Global Rise of Religious Nationalism.” Duke University Press. Internet. November 19, 2011. .United States of America. United States Court of Appeals. Eleventh Circuit. FindLaw. Thomson Reuters. Internet. November 10. 2011. .