64.2
Nationalism Among Iranian University Students
(With Emphasis on Their Ethnic Origin)
Seyyed Ayatollah mirzaie[1]
Abstract
This research has surveyed the nationalistic approaches using a questionnaire among a sample of Iranian students from the six ethnic backgrounds (Balouch, Turk, Persian, Arab, Kurd and Lur). The findings revealed that Iranian students have diverse approaches towards (ancient, religious, civil and state) nationalisms and ethnicism on the basis of background of ethnicity. The finding of this research indicates a very strong approach of Iranian ethnic students towards civil dimension of nationalism in proportion to other approaches. This means that this very strong approach of the students towards the civil dimension of the nationalism lies beyond independent and background variables (ethnicity, religion and the like). Therefore, the most general nationalistic approach among Iranian students is civil approach. This finding is not only strongly observed within the whole research sample, but also it is observed among the students of all the six Iranian ethnic backgrounds. The findings also reveal that other Iranian nationalism approaches (ancient, religious and state) and ethnicism in relation with background variables (ethnicism, religion and the like) are representatives of difference. However, there are strength and weakness in terms of both type of the approach and the degrees of the approach among the students of six ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, it may be concluded that the prevalent nationalistic approaches among Iranian students are: civil, ancient and religious. On the basis of this observation, we are not faced with a unitary nationalistic approach among Iranian students. This finding verifies empirically the views of Smith, Gilbert and Hutchinson based on diversity of nationalistic approaches.
Keywords: nationalism, Iranian nationalism, ancient nationalism, religious nationalism, civil nationalism, ethnic nationalism