Why civic nationalism must trump rabid ethnic nationalism

The author concludes that it is necessary to build healthy alternatives to the kinds of rabid ethnic nationalism that we see all around

Tolerance for diversity and for minority rights had characterised some autocratic empire states in history (like Mughal or Ottoman), but among democratic states one of the earliest cases of making pluralism and liberal constitutional values the basis of nationalism is that of the United States (US), where after the decimation of the indigenous population, a country without much historical memory essentially became a nation of immigrants. 

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address starts with referring to the “nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”. In a 2009 speech Barack Obama said, “One of the