In the Arab/Islamic world, the supremity of the predominant religion and ethnicity is more or less, unquestioned and not many controversies ensue when Jews are demonised or non-Muslims marginalised. While on the whole this is regarded as a negative and rather backward state of affairs, the interesting double backlash in the UK cites such systems as ones that have a firm grip on the meaning of nationhood and identity.

Such travesties as the move to ban piggy banks, call Christmas lights winter lights and ban Christmas nativity plays in schools have inspired an outcry on the part of the 'indigenous' population. A UK band Cradle of Filth promoting a t-shirt with a slogan offensive to Christians prompted a reaction that was contrasted with that amongst the Muslim population when Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses was published and the demise and desecration of Christian Holiness were bewailed. Now this zeitgeist, where Westerners look forlornly and with jealousy and nostalgia upon the Islamic world, its fatwas and edicts and the surpression of minorities, puts modernising Arabs and Muslims in somewhat of an awkward spot. If the West starts looking to the Arab and Islamic world for guidance and exemplification of the meaning of identity and nationhood then the momentum (what ever little of it there is)of modernisation will be scuppered. Not that that is an expected scenario as the backlash against political correctness will probably swing back to a more reasonable middle ground but it raises questions about the dilution of national identity and culture and, whether ultimately, that is a good thing. Maybe, if one is to be over analytical, it can be argued that even extreme political correctness implies superiority through patronisation. In some African tribes, extreme darkness of skin pigmentation is considered a sign of beauty as it indicates purity of ethnicity, however, if there was a fairy tale entitled Coal Black and the Seven Giants, I doubt it would have been too offensive to tall men and white women.