Muslim unity is not present in the "Ummah" as Salafi missionaries from the Gulf Arab states would have you to believe.
I'm a tribal Muslim, who grew up with distrust towards a country that lays south of the Hindu Kush mountains, a country home to 3 million undocumented Afghan refugees, whose territory and frontier my family rejects as artificial and dividing Afghan from Afghan.
My family considers themselves "Persian" and Farsi is their mother tongue, Rumi their poet of choice, and Twelver Shia Islam their cultural chauvinistic rallying cry.
They take pride in the ancient Zoroastrian holidays of Noruz,Yalda, and Mehragan which are celebrated along with the Muslim "eids" like Ashura. Our Muslim culture is a blending of the pre-Islamic and the Islamic, we reject Muslims who call upon their brothers to reject all forms of "culture" and resurrect some neo-purist fallacious notion of a "pure Muslim culture" reminiscent of the first three generations of Muslims.
So when I encountered a Syrian at the San Diego airport, who told me to speak slower in English, I decided to use my college MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) with Egyptian-Sudanese pronunciation, he looks at me surprised I speak Arabic, though limited and broken, and says, "I'm Kurdish, do not speak Arabic to me."
I wanted to laugh, not at him, but by his reaction.
It seems nationalism is not relinquishing anytime soon.
Some Muslims have accused me of being really a Hindu nationalist in the way in which I use to disparage Pakistan and call Jinnah a "brown Englishman" who preferred Western tailored suits over the shalwar kamiz and was keen on drinking, God forbid, alcohol.
But what these Muslims fail to forget is that nationalism, for good or bad, is something we Muslims engage in.
Some may consider the modern nation-state a Western import, nationalism divisive and weakening the Ummah.
But the weakening of the Ummah is ignorance, religious rigidity, and placing faith in sheiks, imams, and mullahs.
So here I am, having encountered a Syrian who told me not to engage in Arabic with him, and he was kind though, and his wife offered me chocolates, and she did not hesitate when I offered her items back, like some Muslim women try at all costs to even get close to a man not related to them by blood or marriage.
I'd argue that ignorance, bigotry and corruption do far more to harm traditionally Muslim lands than religious authority ever has. Educated, empowered people demand leadership, both secular and religious, that is equal to them and their circumstances. If you can't speak up or don't know what to ask for, you get fatawa like the anti-brassiere rubbish out of the KSA.
You both have it right. There are times I regret taking Shahada because anywhere I turn there is controversy and mistrust. I have heard people make the silllest comments, here is an example:
I went to have my eyes examined and chose a eye doctor near my home who accepted my insurance. She happened to be Persian, but I didn't know this at the time and it didn't matter. When I arrived, in Hijab, for my appointment, I could feel her recoil with disgust. Then when we entered the exam room, where no one could see or hear her she began to berate me for all sorts of reasons, my contacts were dirty, they were samples, this that the other. I finally put my hand up in surrender and said, "Sister, I sense that you have a problem with me, what did I ever do to you?"(I had never met her before) She looked at me and said, " I thought all of you, hated all of us." What? Okay what did she mean? Arabs? I am not Arab. Oh anyone who isn't Persian? I didn't get it. But I did get it. It's as you say. And it's sad.
I admit to having a tribal bias.
Muslims need to be honest with themselves and openly admit their biases.
I have encountered them at the mosque I attend, which is a Sunni mosque by the way.
When asked if I'm Shia, I say, I'm SuShi. Some people laugh, others get annoyed.
Even in America, Shia are a minority, but we make up 1/5 of the community here, but we are not well represented among the mainstream organizations like ISNA, Zaytuna, ICNA, MSA, etc. But hey, I don't like to limit my Muslim contacts, even if they might be dismayed by "American" attitude and "buffet mentality" when it comes to practicing Islam.