The expansion of transnational jihadist network is often analyzed through the lens of identity politics or as some describe it as sectarianism: by appealing to the identity of individuals and/or groups they can be mobilized in conflicts with other individuals/groups initializing a dynamic that is very difficult to contain and which has an outreach beyond borders. In his controversial book on clash between civilizations Samuel P. Huntington analyzed this dynamic related to what he called fault line wars. But as he never succeeded in developing a theoretical framework to understand ‘civilization’, an accurate understanding of the concept of ‘identity’ in analyzing identity politics or sectarianism is despite many attempts missing. Departing from a critique of the cartesian interpretation of identity as a ‘thing’, something one can gain or lose, this paper argues with reference to Th. W. Adorno (Negative Dialektik) and Martin Heidegger (Identität und Differenz) for a definition of identity as relation that frames a certain worldview as an outcome of what is defined as a desire for order. This worldview develops as an interplay between ‘space of experience’ and ‘horizons of future expectations’ (R. Koselleck). The dynamic creates worldviews that comprise both emotions, intuitions and Intellectual categories. Worldviews can be promoted in founding narratives that could take shape of narratives of national identity, insurgent ideology or promotion of so-called grounding cultural values, i.e. WASP values in the US or sharia in al-Qaida. Identity politics or sectarianism can be analyzed as competition between these worldviews that under certain condition can intensify into violent conflicts. Based on government documents, academic literature, and sources gathered in field study, the paper will use the developed theoretical framework to analyze three cases: (1) the debate of the return of foreign fighters from Syria / Iraq to Denmark, (2) the internal debates and conflicts in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines, and (3) the Chinese policy targeting the Uighurs in the Xinjiang province after the 2009 Urumqi clashes.