Marxism and nationalism have much in common with fundamentalist religion. It is therefore a mistake for any secular state to actively try to replace religious identities with nationalistic sentiment and class-war rhetoric.

In its review of Noah Feldman’s The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State and Mark Juergensmeyer’s Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to Al Qaeda, The Economist makes some good points:

If you are trying to make people risk their own lives and take the lives of others, then calling the enemy “infidels” (or, literally, demonising them) is more effective than calling them foreigners or class enemies.

And:

As any thieving Balkan warlord knows, decent people often kill in the name of a half-forgotten national cause and for a religion in which they hardly believe. Using both tricks at once is especially effective.

This is why secularists cannot afford to be naïve about religion in our time. The liberal democracies managed to defeat Marxism because they were able to offer a system more successful in everything communism promised but could not materialize. The problem in the contemporary battle between fundamentalist religion and liberal democracy is that the former appear to offer a better deal. To succeed, secularists must become better at addressing cultural issues. It’s time for missionary work.