The essence of national identity and its challenges ( the challenges of the Iraqi national identity as a model)

Abstract

Abstract The question of national identity has been occupied a very important place in the scientific and intellectual centers, and it became an extremely interesting topic among scholars and thinkers, because this issue has become a very problematic and risky matter for each states, at this point it can be seen as a global problem.Indeed, on the one hand, the concept of identity is one of the concepts that are complex and characterized by vagueness;on the other,it is also characterized by their combinations and their interdependence with many of the concepts and other issues, Therefore, this study tries to explain the essence of identity and with addressing of national identity elements and challenges that face as obstacles to remodel and rebuild national identity. This is through a range of opinions and different ideas of thinkers and scholars in this scientific field within contemporary political thought field. The study also addresses the most significant components and dimensions of identity and the various sources that become the basis for identification’s emergence. The content of this study explain that national identity is a framework that includes and skipping all other loyalties in the state without necessarily lead to erase them.Thus, Iraq is one of the countries that suffer from it’s national identity rivalry crisis dispersion, because citizens in Iraq, mostly clinging their loyalty to the identities of ethnic and sectarian instead of their loyalty and love for their national identity, due to reasons of intellectual, objective, psychological, religious, internal and external…etc. those challenges facing national identity in Iraq are various and different, and therefore this study focused on the negative implications of the impact of multiculturalism and ethnic diversity and sectarian, and violation of constitutional items, as well as the lack of mutual trust and orientation towards conflict and collision, rather than sticking to tolerant principle and Equality between the political elite in the decision-making of the blocks and political parties centers, in addition to the indirect consequences of foreign intervention in the affairs of the Iraqi state administration.