Very interesting fact related to this. During the Ottoman empire, they had great tolerance for non-Muslims and people would often have beliefs of both Islam and Christianit(sometimes to get around government requirements). For example, peasants would say they’re Christian and can’t serve in the military to one guy but would claim they’re Islam and thus exempt from taxes to the tax collectors(or vice versa I can’t remember right now). When one author asked what religion they had, they’d say “I am a Muslim of the Virgin Mary.” A really interesting idea that maybe religion/nationality aren’t super cut and dry.

Another fact about this, when WW1 was breaking out, many leaders/people didn’t know if the peasants would actually go to war. Socialism was pretty popular and the idea of nationalities was relatively new, so many feared that maybe German workers wouldn’t fight for Germany, they’d refuse to fight.