Saving the people : how populists hijack religion

Western democracies are experiencing a new wave of right-wing populism that seeks to mobilise religion for its own ends. With chapters on the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland and Israel, Saving the People asks how populist movements have used religion for their own ends and how church leaders react to them. The authors contend that religion is more about belonging than belief for populists, with religious identities and traditions being deployed to define who can and cannot be part of ‘the people’. This in turn helps many populists to claim that native Christian communities are being threatened by a creeping and highly aggressive process of Islamisation, with Muslims becoming a key ‘enemy of the people’. While Church elites generally condemn this instrumental use of religions, populists take little heed, presenting themselves as the true saviours of the people. The policy implications of this phenomenon are significant, which makes this book all the more timely and relevant to current debate.-- Introduction : populism and religion — Nadia Marzouki and Duncan McDonnell -- The Lega Nord : the new saviour of Northern Italy — Duncan McDonnell -- The 'religious conversion' of the Austrian populist radical right — Leila Hadj-Abdou -- Populism and Islam in Switzerland — Oscar Mazzoleni -- Using faith to exclude — Stijn van Kessel -- The French National Front : from Christian identity to laicité — Olivier Roy -- Religion and populism in Britain — Timothy Peace -- Defenders of the cross — Ben Stanley -- ‘The God of Hungarians’ — Zoltán Ádám and András Bozóki -- The tea party and religion : between religious and historical fundamentalism — Nadia Marzouki -- ‘We are also the (chosen) people, you are not’ — Dani Filc -- Beyond populism : the conservative right, the courts, the churches and the concept of a Christian Europe — Olivier Ro