Civil society shaped by religion will ensure the democratization of the political culture while it should also perform the following functions: It needs to protect the nation and the country against global hegemony, national totalitarianism and local tribalism.

This is no easy task. The nation state is still influential. Its totalitarianism may be compared to the state of sugar in a cup of coffee -- it survives intertwined with the whole mixture. The nation state regenerates itself in local administrations, but it also has international forms and entities, such as the EU, which emerged as a different version of the nation state. The nation state regenerates itself as a regional integration in the case of the EU system. In other words, nationalism is not in retreat; it is reinforced and regenerated at local levels and scales and in the form of regional integrations. A large population and a number of countries are to be administered from Brussels; standards applicable to these entities are to be produced in one center -- a system comprising a single parliament and standard, with the lifestyle envisaged by this standard to be imposed from above.

At this stage, civilian initiatives gain importance. In the new era, civilian initiatives will express themselves via references to religion and cities. People will rely on city and religious identities to protect themselves and ensure their social survival against totalitarianism that regenerates itself. Ethnic, professional and gender identities will fade away and be replaced by city and religious identities as well as sentiments of belonging. References to being French or Turkish will remain insufficient to respond to people’s existentialist needs. From this perspective, liberalism, which relies on the individual scale to assess rights and freedoms, will fall short in the new era.

To this end, it seems doubtful the European identity will meet the need for fundamental feelings of belonging and identity. Europe and European identity are not integrative; they are in fact based on the recognition of ethnicity. And because of this, they are likely to cause division and secessionism. Because Europe views the “reality of community” as that of ethnicity, each ethnicity inevitably seeks to achieve its goals. Pope Benedict XVI argues that the new sense of belonging should refer to Christianity in order to avoid the destructive impacts of the new era. To him, a mere reference to ethnicity and Europeanism will bring ethnicity back and lead to partition. This is a recommendation that needs to be taken into account. The historical clash between religion and the church in Europe puts this project into jeopardy. The pope is aware of this, but he sees no other way out. For this reason, he wants the inclusion of a reference to Christianity in the EU constitution. He visibly says that Europe cannot sustain its survival without faith in God.

To this end, the Muslim identity bears great significance and meaning because it faces “the other.” If the clash of civilizations turns into a clash of religions, everyone will rely on their own religious identity. Even if they do not want to, others will make them act so and rely on their religious references. Regardless of whether we want it or not, we will have to face others in terms of ethical, philosophical, ideological and social differences; this leads us to review identity and strive to redefine, recognize and reposition ourselves.