But when you conflate your religion's ideas with your sense of identity, defending your people becomes the same thing as defending your faith.
If your identity is defending, no problem.
"When Israel is attacking my identity, I defend my identity," Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli-Arab Parliament member, said in a telephone interview.
"To defend her identity, my grandmother kept doing seafood for Christmas Eve.
To cheers, Mr Wilders declared that Germans, too, needed to defend their identity against Islamisation.Mr Wilders should not be underestimated.
It's important for our sense of cultural identity, he believes, and consequently our ability to defend that identity against external threats, not to lose sight of this.
It's the strategy of the weak toward the strong: mastering the language of dominant usage permits one to better defend the identity of one's own language".
Complaining of the dangers of mass immigration and multiculturalism that she said the EU was forcing on France, she vowed to defend French identity and restore national sovereignty.
The authors of this study, David Goodhart and Eric Kaufmann, draw on a small survey of UK and US citizens to tell us that "racial self-interest" is not the same as "racism", concluding that it is fair for white Britons to defend white identity.
But for the millions who fear they are losing out, and who see their town or country changing around them, including through immigration, it's natural to hold on tight to, and fiercely defend, an identity that feels safe and familiar.
