National Identity in Viewpoint of Ayatollah Motahari

National identity is a collection of positive approaches and inclinations towards identifying, integrating factors, elements and samples at state level as a political unit. National identity has some constructive elements such as national, religious, cultural, societal, humane values as well as cultural, social, historical, geographical, political and lingual elements. The Iranian national identity too enjoys the above-mentioned aspects and elements. But the most important factors in this regard are Islamism, Iranism and the influences of the Western culture. Hence, in Iran’s contemporary history, the main challenges have always surfaced between these two elements and their relations with the Western culture. Morteza Motahari, a religious intellectual, who identified various problems of the society from different religious angles, has some viewpoints about Iranian identity, giving priority to the element of religion as the main constituent element of identity, considering other elements such as geography, race, language, tradition, and culture as secondary elements. In his viewpoint Islam is the main element of the Iranian identity. The present article is an attempt to discuss his viewpoints on this very issue.