Ma`rifat Farhangi Ejtemaei

Dealing with the ethnic diversity of societies, "assimilation" is one of the patterns pursued by some governments with the aim of creating internal cohesion. There are two general approaches to assimilation as an approach: first is the negation of ethnic and cultural symbols without preferring a specific ethnic group; and second is the negation of ethnic and cultural symbols moving towards the superior and ruling ethnic group. On the other hand, one of Islam’s teachings is to create unity in the ummah. This raises the suspicion of the similarity between the Islamic view and the "assimilation" approach, which seems to be a problem in itself. However, the policy of "ethnic assimilation", with both approaches, can be criticized by reason and the Divine law in various aspects. The principle of ethnic diversity and the formation of ethnic identity is a natural and, of course, non-intrinsic matter that Islam accepts and believes it has some benefits. This principle criticizes both approaches. Ethnic discrimination and superiority, which is the pillar of one of the approaches to assimilation, is not acceptable. Dealing with ethnic traditions is not always the same. There are four approaches to different traditions in Islam: "acceptance", "acceptance along with guidance and rectification", "silence and permissiveness" and "non-acceptance". Unlike the issue of ethnicity, "Islamic assimilation" is the same for all ethnic groups and societies, and the ideology is based on faith and human values. This ideology is easily realized because human societies and ethnicities are of the same type and it is considered as the end point of the human world. The method of this research is "content analysis" using rational arguments.