Historically many (predominantly muslim) places in near and middle east have been very diverse, though maybe not exactly the kind of diversity usually conceptualised in the west. If anything, the idea of homogeneous nation states is more like rooted in the enlightenment.

▲

fmajid 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> the idea of homogeneous nation states is more like rooted in the enlightenment.

More precisely the Peace of Westphalia, which was a deal between the crowned heads of Europe to stop rocking the boat, and the absolute opposite of what the Enlightenment wanted since it was designed to consolidate royal political control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia

	▲	TFNA 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The striving for a linguistically homogeneous nation state in Europe is strongly associated with the French Revolution, which was one of the major expressions of the Enlightenment. It was then that a centralized government began strongly sanctioning regional languages that the monarchical regime had largely left alone (albeit out of any official use). After that, the next big wave was the revolutions of 1848, which were inspired by national romanticism, but it’s valid to see that as an evolution of ideas that first arose in the Enlightenment. It certainly wasn’t out of any belief in royal absolutism.

▲

dgellow 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> If anything, the idea of homogeneous nation states is more like rooted in the enlightenment.

The seeds were planted during the enlightenment period but I believe the raise of nationalism is generally considered post-enlightenment

▲

snowpid 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think you make an too easy argument: Compared to e.g. Christian places in Europe where people still the same tongue like before the Christianisation (roughly speaking), Aramic, Demotic or Berbic languages, once majority languages are now minority languages in Arabic enviroments. Ironically Aramic and Demotic are spoken mostly by Christian minorities.

Also I see the Islamic movement in recent years pushing for Islamic homogeneous countries and driving ethnic, religious, language and sexual minorities out of their homelands (mainly into Europe).

Compare to today (often secular) European counterparts Arabic nations are homogenous and root cause was Anti enlightenment ideologies.

▲

umeshunni 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Islam is accepting of cultures as long as they convert to Islam. Everyone else is kaffir and pays the jizya or is killed.

▲

mghackerlady 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Extreme Islam acts like that, as does extreme Christianity or any extreme religion. Out of all the Muslims I've met and all the Christians I've met, the Muslims have been by far the more tolerant (granted, I live in the US so there is a very obvious bias in both directions)

	▲	umeshunni an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Lol, you should get out more.

▲

suddenlybananas 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

While this was definitely true historically, it's becoming much less the case. Plenty of minorities have had to flee the Near/Middle East from persecution or genocide. The Middle East has become massively more (orthodox) Muslim in the last hundred years.