The De-privatization of Religious Populism: A Look at the Contemporary Phenomena of Modernophobia and Islamophobia

This work investigates the origins of religious populism, examining it vis-à-vis the advent of secularism and the idea of the privatization of religion. Through a descriptive and analytical methodology, this paper will examine how, contrary to the theories of secularization, the de-privatization of religion has occurred and how, consequently, the politicization of this discourse has deepened. It is with the development and deepening of the politicization of religion that religious populism starts to penetrate and gain preponderance in the public space, assuming a gradually more relevant influence in the current political discourse and in the understanding that individuals make of themselves and of others. This research focuses geographically on the West (Europe and North America) and Islam (Middle East and North Africa) since this regional dichotomy allows us to isolate two subtypes of religious populism – modernophobia and Islamophobia – close to right-wing populism and to its ideas of culture and identity. We conclude that these types of religious populism derive from the de-privatization of religion, thus promoting a (negative) reaction to modernization, namely in the form of anti-secularism, and a deepening of populist-religious discourses and practices, respectively.