People belong to communities. A Muslima in Albania, for instance, can feel part of the Ummah, the community of all Muslims in the world. At the same time she can feel Albanian, in other words, a member of the national community. Alongside this she can feel attached to the local community, her family and her occupational group. In this way, all people have a number of groups to which they feel linked, and they derive an important part of their identity from these social relations.

Social identification, the sense of belonging somewhere, is a natural human need. A community cannot function well if there is not a certain degree of community spirit and solidarity. If something like this is lacking, it is almost impossible to live together harmoniously and resolve conflicts peacefully. Unfortunately, identity is sometimes manipulated, mostly for political ends. Familiar examples are nationalism and racism, in which, in opposition to the we-group of the community, a they-group is constructed which is laden with stereotypes and enemy images. In international history there are scores of examples of this kind of polarization between social identities. Many wars have already ensued from this, and even nowadays, nationalism, ethnic contrasts and religiously inspired enemy images constitute an important source of conflicts, between countries as well as between population groups within the same country.

In global citizenship education, reflecting on identity and on global issues connected with identity (and its manipulation) is of great importance. In a positive sense, social identity represents essential values for each person: the feeling of belonging somewhere, community spirit, self-esteem. In a negative sense, we-they thinking can arouse dangerous conflicts. That is why encouraging interest and respect for other identities, whether these are religious, national or transnational identifications, is an important element.

Three aspects have been selected to illustrate the theme of identity:

• Religious identity as a source of inspiration in the lives of billions of people on earth and unfortunately sometimes also as a source of internal and international conflicts. Window chosen: Hinduism.
• National identity, not as an established fact, but as a process in which, in the combined action of the state and the inhabitants of a country, the national layer of identity is continually changing. Window chosen: Spain.
• Harmonious coexistence in a community of people with very different ethnic and religious identities. Window chosen: Paramaribo.