Islamism and Christian Nationalism Compared
Islamism and Christian Nationalism Compared
This collection examines Islamism and Christian nationalism as political ideologies that seek to connect religious identity with governmental authority and national life. The sources include academic scholarship, public opinion research, policy analysis, historical studies, and reference materials that explore similarities, differences, historical development, and contemporary political movements across numerous countries.
Definitions and Ideological Foundations
The collection begins by defining Islamism, Christian nationalism, religious nationalism, fundamentalism, political theology, dominion theology, theonomy, sharia, and related concepts. Numerous reference works distinguish religious belief from political ideology and emphasize that neither Islam nor Christianity should be equated with their respective political movements. Several comparative studies examine how religion becomes intertwined with national identity, state authority, and competing visions of political legitimacy.
Comparative Frameworks
Many sources directly compare Islamism and Christian nationalism within broader theories of religious nationalism. Rather than treating either movement as unique, scholars examine common themes such as:
- fusion of religion and national identity
- claims of divine political authority
- moral absolutism
- narratives of national decline
- sacred history and chosen peoples
- opposition to secular governance
- competing understandings of pluralism
The collection also includes broader comparisons involving Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Orthodox, and other forms of religious nationalism.
Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Political Power
A major theme concerns the relationship between religious political movements and democratic government. Sources examine:
- participation of religious parties in elections
- constitutional government
- authoritarian tendencies
- majoritarian rule
- democratic backsliding
- religious legitimacy
- political violence
- constitutional debates over religion
Several works also explore attempts to reconcile Islamic political thought with democratic institutions while examining Christian nationalism's relationship to constitutional democracy in the United States and elsewhere.
National Identity and Religious Belonging
Numerous studies investigate how religious identity becomes part of national identity. Topics include:
- citizenship
- immigration
- cultural identity
- civil religion
- national myths
- race
- ethnicity
- definitions of national belonging
- exclusion of minorities
Comparative research illustrates how religious nationalism develops differently across countries depending on history, institutions, demographics, and political competition.
Populism, Grievance, and Identity Politics
Several works examine how populist movements employ religion within broader narratives of cultural decline, victimhood, demographic anxiety, civilizational conflict, and national restoration. These studies analyze political rhetoric, conspiracy narratives, social fragmentation, and identity politics in both Western and Muslim-majority societies.
Gender, Family, and Moral Order
Many sources analyze the central role of family, gender, sexuality, reproduction, and moral authority within both Islamist and Christian nationalist political programs. Topics include:
- traditional family structures
- abortion
- same-sex marriage
- reproductive rights
- women's political participation
- family law
- patriarchy
- motherhood
- religious morality
Several comparative works also explore how women's rights become political symbols within nationalist movements.
Religious Freedom and Minority Rights
Another major section focuses on religious liberty, pluralism, and equal citizenship. Topics include:
- treatment of religious minorities
- blasphemy laws
- apostasy
- state religion
- secularism
- discrimination
- equal citizenship
- freedom of conscience
International reports compare religious restrictions and government policies across numerous countries.
State Religion, Law, and Political Authority
Many studies examine attempts to integrate religious law with state institutions. Examples include:
- constitutional references to religion
- Islamic constitutionalism
- sharia debates
- dominion theology
- theonomy
- religious courts
- clerical authority
- state religious institutions
- official religion
Country studies explore Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and other political systems.
Violence, Extremism, and Security
Numerous sources distinguish mainstream religious movements from extremist organizations while examining:
- radicalization
- terrorism
- political violence
- extremist ideology
- social media
- security policy
- counterterrorism
- public perceptions of threat
Several works caution against conflating ordinary religious believers with militant political organizations.
Political Movements and Country Case Studies
The collection includes detailed case studies involving:
- Turkey
- Egypt
- Jordan
- Algeria
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Kuwait
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia
- Iran
- Hungary
- Russia
- Brazil
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- France
- United States
- Africa
These studies demonstrate the diversity of both Islamist and Christian nationalist movements rather than treating either as a single ideology.
Islamophobia, Identity, and Political Conflict
Multiple sources examine how political actors construct Muslims or Christianity as symbols within broader ideological conflicts. Topics include:
- Islamophobia
- anti-Muslim rhetoric
- racialization
- nationalism
- immigration
- citizenship
- populism
- civilizational narratives
- media representation
Several works argue that political movements often use religious identity to mobilize broader cultural and national anxieties.
Resistance, Reform, and Democratic Alternatives
The collection also includes sources exploring alternatives to religious nationalism, including:
- pluralism
- constitutional democracy
- religious freedom
- inclusive governance
- post-Islamism
- Muslim democracy
- church-state separation
- interfaith cooperation
- civil society
- democratic reform
These works examine ways religious commitment and democratic institutions may coexist without establishing religious dominance over government.
Conclusion
Taken together, these sources provide a comprehensive overview of Islamism and Christian nationalism as political ideologies rather than religious traditions. They examine historical origins, intellectual foundations, democratic participation, authoritarian tendencies, identity politics, religious nationalism, gender, law, extremism, religious freedom, and international case studies. The collection emphasizes comparative analysis, demonstrating both significant similarities and important differences while highlighting the diversity of political movements that operate under religious identities.
Direct Comparisons and Comparative Frameworks
You Can’t Side With One Form of Religious Extremism to Protect Yourself From Another
| Humanists UK | Humanists UK | September 29, 2025
Christian nationalism and Islamist extremism are compared as mutually reinforcing movements that portray one another as existential enemies while opposing pluralism, gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and secular government.
Religious Nationalism Around the World
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | January 28, 2025
This international survey provides a common framework for comparing Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Buddhist forms of religious nationalism across thirty-six countries.
Religious Nationalism: Narratives, Conflict, and Peacebuilding
| Contending Modernities | University of Notre Dame | August 14, 2024
This educational collection examines victimization narratives, Islamophobia, political identity, conflict, and peacebuilding across several forms of religious nationalism.
Religion and Nationalism in Global Perspective
| Jocelyne Cesari | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs | March 30, 2022
This overview compares the interaction of religion, citizenship, national identity, and state power in Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Orthodox political settings.
Conscripts of Secularism: Nationalism, Islam and Violence
| Tim Müller | Religion, State and Society | 2022
The article examines how secular political frameworks categorize religious nationalism and violence, particularly when discussing Islam and Muslim political movements.
Religious Nationalism and Perceptions of Muslims and Islam
| Allyson F. Shortle and Ronald Keith Gaddie | Politics and Religion | 2015
The study finds that Christian-nationalist beliefs and biblical literalism are associated with restrictive attitudes toward Muslims and Muslim religious practice.
A Comparative Study of Selected Themes in Christian and Islamic Fundamentalist Discourses
| David Zeidan | British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies | 2003
This comparative study identifies shared themes in Christian and Islamic fundamentalism, including divine sovereignty, moral absolutism, cultural decline, gender hierarchy, and opposition to secularism.
Islamism and Trumpism: The Search for a Politics of Meaning
| Shadi Hamid | Brookings Institution | November 17, 2016
Hamid compares Islamism with Trump-era ethnonationalism as responses to social fragmentation, cultural anxiety, and the desire to anchor politics in a powerful collective identity.
On Political Islam and Political Christianity
| Religion in Praxis | Religion in Praxis | No date
This essay argues that both Islam and Christianity have produced diverse political traditions and that political Islam should be compared with political Christianity rather than with an imagined neutral West.
Definitions and Ideological Foundations
Five Elements of Christian Nationalism
| Kettering Foundation | Kettering Foundation | September 11, 2025
This article identifies defining features of Christian nationalism, including national mythology, cultural boundaries, political power, moral hierarchy, and claims that the nation has a divine mission.
Islamism and Nationalism: How Did Old Enemies Become New Partners?
| Ahmet T. Kuru | Comparative Migration Studies | 2025
The article examines alliances between Islamists and nationalists in Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Malaysia, showing how religious and national identity can merge within authoritarian politics.
What Is Christian Nationalism?
| Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty | No date
This frequently asked questions page distinguishes Christian nationalism from Christianity and describes its fusion of religious identity, national belonging, and political authority.
What Is Islamism?
| The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica | No date
This reference article defines Islamism as a range of political ideologies seeking to organize government and society according to particular interpretations of Islam.
Islamism
| Wikipedia contributors | Wikipedia | No date
This reference article reviews the origins, varieties, intellectual foundations, political parties, revolutionary movements, and controversies associated with Islamism.
Christian Nationalism
| Wikipedia contributors | Wikipedia | No date
This extensive reference article surveys Christian-nationalist movements, ideas, controversies, and organizations in the United States and several other countries.
Religious Nationalism
| Encyclopedia.com contributors | Encyclopedia.com | No date
This overview describes religious nationalism as the effort to combine sacred traditions with national identity, territorial sovereignty, and political legitimacy.
Fundamentalism
| The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica | No date
This article surveys fundamentalist movements across religions and helps distinguish theological conservatism from the political projects represented by Islamism and Christian nationalism.
Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Political Power
In the US, Christian Nationalism Contributes to the Dismantling of Democracy
| André Gagné | Le Monde | February 6, 2026
The article argues that dominionists, New Apostolic Reformation leaders, and Catholic integralists are promoting religiously authorized political hierarchy over democratic equality.
Christian Nationalism Threatens Democracy—Secularism Protects It
| Stephen Evans | National Secular Society | September 17, 2025
This commentary argues that secular government protects both religious freedom and democracy from movements seeking to institutionalize Christian political supremacy.
Faith Is Powerful—That’s Why Christian Nationalism Is So Dangerous
| Nathan Empsall | Time | July 28, 2022
The author argues that Christian nationalism turns religious commitment into a partisan instrument and threatens democratic inclusion while remaining distinct from Christianity generally.
Christian Nationalism and Political Violence
| Miles T. Armaly, David T. Buckley and Adam M. Enders | PNAS | January 2022
This study finds that support for political violence is especially strong when Christian nationalism combines with white identity, perceived victimhood, and political grievance.
Political Islam and Democracy
| Brookings Institution | Brookings Institution | April 24, 2018
Scholars discuss whether Islamist parties can participate democratically, accept electoral defeat, govern pluralistic societies, and adapt their ideology to the modern nation-state.
Islamists on Islamism Today
| Shadi Hamid and Rashid Dar | Brookings Institution | February 2017
This project presents Islamist thinkers’ own descriptions of their goals, internal debates, political strategies, and changing relationships with democracy.
The Roots of the Islamic State’s Appeal
| Richard Barrett | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | October 2015
The article examines how identity, humiliation, ideology, state failure, and promises of sacred political order contributed to the appeal of the Islamic State.
The Rise of Political Islam
| Council on Foreign Relations | Council on Foreign Relations | No date
This backgrounder describes the diversity of Islamist movements and considers their relationships with elections, constitutional government, violence, and democratic institutions.
Are Islamism and Democracy Compatible?
| Shadi Hamid | Brookings Institution | No date
This analysis examines tensions between popular sovereignty and divine authority while emphasizing the differences among Islamist parties, movements, and governing experiences.
National Identity, Belonging, and the Religious Nation
Christian Nationalism Is a Global Phenomenon
| Paul A. Djupe | Religion & Politics | March 8, 2022
The article describes Christian nationalism beyond the United States and emphasizes that its institutional forms depend on national history, religious demographics, and political competition.
Nationalism and Politics in India
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | June 29, 2021
Although centered on Hindu nationalism, this survey provides useful comparative evidence about how religious identity becomes a test of national belonging for religious minorities.
Who Is a Real American?
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 11, 2021
This research examines the degree to which Americans associate Christianity, birthplace, language, and cultural conformity with authentic national membership.
American National Identity: Partisanship, Polarization, and Perceptions of Inclusion
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | October 8, 2018
The survey explores how race, religion, immigration, and partisan identity shape competing definitions of who qualifies as a genuine American.
Race, Religion, and Christian Nationalism in the United States
| Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | Sociology of Religion | 2018
The study analyzes Christian nationalism as a cultural framework connecting religious narratives with racial boundaries, national identity, and political attitudes.
The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | April 30, 2013
This multinational survey examines Muslim views of sharia, democracy, religious freedom, gender roles, political violence, and relations with Christians.
Muslim Views on Interfaith Relations
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | April 30, 2013
This chapter measures Muslim knowledge of Christianity, perceptions of religious hostility, interfaith attitudes, and acceptance of religious diversity.
Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | April 15, 2010
The report finds strong support for democracy and religious freedom alongside substantial support among some Christians and Muslims for making biblical or sharia principles official law.
The Coming Religious Wars? Demographics and Conflict in Islam and Christianity
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 18, 2005
This discussion considers demographic change, Christian-Muslim competition, political conflict, and the danger of treating large religious populations as unified ideological blocs.
Christian Nationalism in Global Perspective
| Berkley Center contributors | Georgetown University | No date
This collection places American Christian nationalism within a broader global history of religious identity, national mythology, colonialism, populism, and state power.
Populism, Grievance, and Narratives of Decline
Religious Nationalism and the January 6 Insurrection
| Philip S. Gorski | Contending Modernities | January 12, 2024
Gorski examines how sacred national history, apocalyptic struggle, victimhood, and promises of national restoration shaped Christian-nationalist participation in January 6.
Christian Nationalism and the Paranoid Style in American Politics
| Paul A. Djupe and Ryan P. Burge | Salon | July 24, 2022
The authors connect Christian nationalism with conspiracy narratives, fears of cultural replacement, perceived persecution, and apocalyptic interpretations of political conflict.
The Flag and the Cross
| Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry | Oxford University Press | 2022
This book page introduces an analysis of white Christian nationalism as a story of divinely favored conquest, racial hierarchy, freedom for insiders, and violence against perceived enemies.
Christian Nationalism and the Capitol Insurrection
| Audra Dugandzic | Religion & Politics | January 12, 2021
This article documents Christian symbols and rhetoric at the Capitol attack and explains how political rebellion was framed as a defense of a divinely chosen nation.
The Rise of Sweden Democrats and the End of Swedish Exceptionalism
| Anders Hellström and Pieter Bevelander | Brookings Institution | March 25, 2020
This study examines how anxiety about Islam, immigration, identity, and social change contributed to the growth of right-wing populism in Sweden.
Islam as a “Floating Signifier”
| Johannes Rydgren and Anders Ravik Jupskås | Brookings Institution | July 24, 2019
The article shows how populist politicians use “Islam” as a flexible symbol representing threats to culture, national identity, security, gender equality, and social cohesion.
Understanding the Party for Freedom’s Politicization of Islam
| Koen Vossen | Brookings Institution | July 24, 2019
This study examines how Geert Wilders transformed Islam from a religious category into an alleged totalitarian political ideology within Dutch populist discourse.
Muslims in the West and the Rise of the New Populists
| Brookings Institution | Brookings Institution | 2019
This collection investigates how Muslim minorities and fears about Islam have been used to construct exclusionary populist identities across Europe and the United States.
The Age of Anger
| Christopher de Bellaigue | The Guardian | January 25, 2017
This review discusses how resentment, disrupted identity, humiliation, and opposition to cosmopolitan elites can feed both religious extremism and nationalist populism.
The Islamist
| Pankaj Mishra | The New Yorker | April 9, 2007
This essay considers the political and emotional appeal of Islamism amid colonial legacies, authoritarianism, failed modernization, inequality, and alienation.
Gender, Family, and Moral Order
Christian Nationalism and the Gendered Politics of the Nation
| Religion & Politics contributors | Religion & Politics | August 23, 2022
This analysis describes how Christian-nationalist ideas define national strength through male authority, female submission, heterosexual marriage, and reproduction.
Christian Nationalism and Support for Traditional Gender Roles
| Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Socius | 2021
This research links Christian nationalism with patriarchal family ideals and resistance to changing expectations concerning women’s authority and public roles.
Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage
| Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Sociology of Religion | 2017
The study finds that Christian nationalism independently predicts opposition to same-sex marriage by connecting sexuality with the moral boundaries of the nation.
Femonationalism and the Politics of Islam
| Sara R. Farris | Duke University Press | 2017
This book page introduces the concept of femonationalism, in which right-wing nationalist movements selectively invoke women’s rights to stigmatize Muslims and justify exclusionary policies.
The Muslim Brotherhood and Women’s Rights
| Carnegie Endowment contributors | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | February 2013
This analysis examines how the Muslim Brotherhood balanced electoral pragmatism, conservative family ideals, and demands for women’s political and legal equality.
Women and the Arab Spring
| Marwan Muasher | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | October 2012
The article discusses women’s participation in Arab uprisings and the conflict between equality advocates, authoritarian states, conservative institutions, and Islamist parties.
Gender and the Nation
| Nira Yuval-Davis | SAGE Publications | 1997
This foundational work explains how nationalist movements use women as biological reproducers, cultural symbols, moral guardians, and markers of collective boundaries.
How Christian Nationalism Fuels Reproductive Politics
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | No date
This article examines how beliefs about America’s divine identity influence attitudes toward abortion, reproductive authority, gender roles, and government enforcement of morality.
Women and Gender in Islamism
| Brookings Institution contributors | Brookings Institution | No date
This analysis considers the central place of women, family law, modesty, motherhood, and gender segregation in Islamist political programs.
Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa
| Freedom House | Freedom House | No date
This collection provides country-level evidence concerning family law, political participation, personal status codes, religious authority, and women’s legal equality.
Minorities, Religious Freedom, and Pluralism
Christian Nationalism and Violence Against Religious Minorities in the United States
| Nilay Saiya and Stuti Manchanda | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | 2025
This quantitative study examines whether Christian-nationalist ideology is associated with greater acceptance of violence directed against religious minorities.
Restrictions on Religion Around the World
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 5, 2024
The report compares government restrictions and social hostilities involving religious communities, offering evidence about the consequences of privileging one religion politically.
American Christian Nationalism and the Politics of Religious Exclusion
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | February 28, 2024
This fifty-state survey measures Christian-nationalist beliefs and their relationships with authoritarianism, political identity, immigration, race, and religious exclusion.
A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture
| Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution | PRRI | February 8, 2023
The report classifies Americans according to their support for Christian nationalism and examines associated views about democracy, race, immigration, antisemitism, and political violence.
Muslims and Islam: Key Findings in the U.S. and Around the World
| Michael Lipka | Pew Research Center | August 9, 2017
This summary presents demographic and public-opinion findings that help separate Muslim populations from the political ideologies and militant organizations commonly associated with Islamism.
How the U.S. General Public Views Muslims and Islam
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | July 26, 2017
This survey documents changing American opinions about Muslims and Islam, including warmth, discrimination, violence, religious commitment, and compatibility with American society.
Freedom of Thought Report
| Humanists International | Humanists International | Updated annually
This international database evaluates laws and practices involving blasphemy, apostasy, religious privilege, secularism, and discrimination against nonreligious people.
Global Restrictions on Religion
| United States Commission on International Religious Freedom | USCIRF | Updated regularly
These reports document state restrictions, religious persecution, extremist violence, and legal discrimination in Christian-majority and Muslim-majority political systems.
Religious Freedom in Majority-Muslim Countries
| Council on Foreign Relations | Council on Foreign Relations | No date
This backgrounder considers blasphemy laws, apostasy restrictions, minority rights, state religious institutions, and political struggles over Islamic identity.
Christian Nationalism and the Rights of Non-Christians
| Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty | BJC | No date
This resource explains how privileging Christianity through government can undermine equal citizenship and religious liberty for Christians, non-Christians, and nonreligious people alike.
State Religion, Law, and Theocracy
The Dual Imperative in Turkish Foreign Policy: Right-Wing Populists and Their Opposition
| Sinan Ciddi and Merve Tahiroğlu | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | June 26, 2026
This analysis describes the increasingly Islamist-nationalist character of Turkey’s governing coalition and its effects on foreign policy, democracy, and political opposition.
Can the Iranian System Survive?
| Arash Azizi | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | September 29, 2022
The article considers whether Iranian nationalism and military rule could eventually displace clerical Islamism as the principal basis of the Islamic Republic’s authority.
Islam as Statecraft: How Governments Use Religion in Foreign Policy
| Peter Mandaville and Shadi Hamid | Brookings Institution | February 19, 2019
The authors examine how Muslim-majority governments use religious institutions, narratives, education, and international networks to advance national interests and political legitimacy.
Raja Mandala: Nationalism Comes to Saudi Arabia
| C. Raja Mohan | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | February 19, 2019
This article describes Saudi efforts to promote territorial nationalism while reducing the political importance of pan-Islamism and transnational religious identity.
Official Islam in the Arab World: The Contest for Religious Authority
| Nathan J. Brown | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | May 11, 2017
This report explains how Arab governments control mosques, religious education, clerical appointments, and broadcasting while negotiating with religious establishments that retain some autonomy.
The Sectarianism of the Islamic State
| Hassan Hassan | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | June 13, 2016
The report traces the Islamic State’s sectarian ideology and warns against reducing its complex political theology to a single text, thinker, or Islamic tradition.
Iran’s Ideological Evolution
| Karim Sadjadpour | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | 2013
This report describes the interaction of Islamism, anti-Westernism, revolutionary internationalism, national grievance, and Iranian state interests.
Theonomy
| The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica | No date
This reference entry introduces the Christian political doctrine that civil law should be based on biblical law, a concept related to but distinct from broader Christian nationalism.
Dominion Theology
| Association of Religion Data Archives | ARDA | No date
This resource introduces Christian movements seeking cultural or institutional control over government, education, media, family, business, religion, and the arts.
Sharia
| The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica | No date
This reference article explains the historical diversity of Islamic jurisprudence and helps distinguish sharia as a religious-legal tradition from modern Islamist state projects.
Violence, Extremism, and Security
The Violent Take It by Force
| Matthew D. Taylor | Broadleaf Books | October 1, 2024
This book page introduces an investigation of the New Apostolic Reformation, spiritual-warfare theology, Christian nationalism, and the religious networks involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Christian Nationalism and Support for Political Violence
| Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Journal of Politics | 2022
This research examines how sacred national identity can increase acceptance of force when believers perceive their religion, political community, or social status as threatened.
How White Christian Nationalism Fueled the Capitol Insurrection
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | January 12, 2021
This report documents prayers, crosses, flags, prophetic claims, and spiritual-warfare language used by participants in the January 6 attack.
Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States
This analysis examines white supremacist, anti-government, religious, and other far-right violence, offering a basis for comparison with security responses to Islamist terrorism.
What Terrorism Experts Can Learn From Public Health Experts
| Charles Kurzman | Foreign Policy | September 28, 2019
Kurzman argues that counterterrorism policy should avoid exaggeration, stigmatization, and misleading risk assessments that can produce ineffective or discriminatory responses.
Modeling Islamist Extremist Communications on Social Media
| Ugur Kursuncu and others | arXiv | August 18, 2019
This computational study distinguishes religious language, political ideology, and hate speech in online Islamist extremist communication while warning against mislabeling ordinary Muslims.
The Differential Treatment of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism
| Faiza Patel and Meghan Koushik | Brennan Center for Justice | March 16, 2017
The report criticizes counter-extremism programs for stigmatizing Muslim communities and questions whether comparable risks from far-right and religious-nationalist movements receive equal attention.
Islamist Extremism: A Practical Introduction
| United States Institute of Peace | USIP | January 2016
This resource discusses public concern about Islamist extremism while emphasizing distinctions among Islam, Islamism, radicalization, terrorism, and Muslim communities.
The Evolution of the Islamic State’s Ideology
| Cole Bunzel | Brookings Institution | March 9, 2015
The article traces the Islamic State’s doctrines of caliphate, jihad, sectarianism, governance, and apocalyptic conflict.
From Paper State to Caliphate
| Cole Bunzel | Brookings Institution | March 2015
This detailed report reconstructs the ideological development of the Islamic State and distinguishes its revolutionary Salafi-jihadism from other Islamist movements.
Political Movements and Country Cases
Christian Nationalism in the United States
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | October 27, 2022
This national survey examines the political coalitions, social attitudes, racial beliefs, and authoritarian tendencies associated with Christian-nationalist ideas in the United States.
Tunisia’s Ennahda: Rethinking Islamism
| Carnegie Endowment contributors | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | March 2017
This analysis considers Ennahda’s effort to separate religious preaching from party politics and redefine itself as a Muslim democratic movement.
The AKP’s Transformation From Political Islam to Islamist Nationalism
| Ziya Öniş | Journal of Democracy | 2016
This analysis helps explain how Turkey’s governing party moved from reformist political Islam toward centralized authority, majoritarianism, and religious nationalism.
An Unexpected Result in Algeria’s Parliamentary Elections
| Marina Ottaway | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | May 23, 2012
The article examines the electoral defeat of Algeria’s Islamist alliance and cautions against treating Islamist parties throughout the Arab world as a single political force.
Turkey: Islamists, Nationalists, and the Politics of Erdoğan
| Kali Robinson | Council on Foreign Relations | Updated regularly
This backgrounder describes the combination of conservative Islam, Turkish nationalism, presidential power, and regional ambition under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
| Council on Foreign Relations | Council on Foreign Relations | Updated regularly
This overview traces the Brotherhood’s social networks, electoral participation, brief period in government, removal by the military, and continuing ideological influence.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Evolution
| Shadi Hamid | Brookings Institution | No date
The article examines how repression, elections, organizational survival, and ideological debate shaped the Brotherhood’s political development.
Christian Nationalism in Russia
| Jeffrey Mankoff | Center for Strategic and International Studies | No date
This analysis considers the alliance of Orthodox religious identity, Russian nationalism, state power, and claims that Russia has a distinctive civilizational mission.
Christian Nationalism in Hungary
| Brookings Institution contributors | Brookings Institution | No date
This article examines Viktor Orbán’s use of Christian civilization, demographic anxiety, anti-immigration politics, and national sovereignty to legitimize illiberal government.
Christian Nationalism in Brazil
| Berkley Center contributors | Georgetown University | No date
This analysis discusses evangelical political mobilization, Catholic conservatism, Bolsonaro-era populism, anticommunism, gender politics, and religious claims about the Brazilian nation.
Resistance, Reform, and Democratic Alternatives
How Mainline Christians Can Resist Christian Nationalism
| Religion News Service contributors | Religion News Service | August 3, 2022
This article discusses theological education, public witness, coalition building, historical honesty, and democratic participation as responses to Christian nationalism.
A Baptist Response to Christian Nationalism
| Amanda Tyler | Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty | January 2021
Tyler argues that Christian nationalism harms democracy and Christianity by replacing religious witness with the pursuit of cultural dominance and governmental power.
Religious Freedom as an Antidote to Religious Nationalism
| United States Institute of Peace | USIP | July 2020
This analysis presents inclusive governance, equal citizenship, interfaith cooperation, and freedom of conscience as alternatives to both religious authoritarianism and coercive secularism.
Islam, Democracy, and the Arab Spring
| United States Institute of Peace | USIP | September 2011
This resource examines whether Islamic political thought and democratic institutions can coexist and emphasizes the diversity of Muslim political experiences.
Anti-Fascist War or Gift to the Terrorists?
| Anatol Lieven | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | October 18, 2004
Lieven distinguishes Islam from radical Islamist movements and argues that Muslim societies are capable of producing liberal, democratic, and progressive political traditions.
Christians Against Christian Nationalism
| Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty | No date
This statement by Christian leaders rejects the merger of Christianity with American political identity and defends religious freedom, pluralism, and equal citizenship.
The Threat of Christian Nationalism
| Americans United for Separation of Church and State | Americans United | No date
This resource explains Christian nationalism’s implications for church-state separation, reproductive rights, public education, LGBTQ+ equality, and minority religions.
Muslim Democracy Rather Than Political Islam
| Vali Nasr | Brookings Institution | No date
This analysis describes movements that retain Muslim cultural values while accepting elections, pluralism, markets, constitutional limits, and the practical separation of religious and political organizations.
Post-Islamism
| The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica | No date
This reference entry introduces post-Islamism as an effort to combine religious commitment with individual rights, democratic participation, pluralism, and limits on clerical authority.
Islamic Democracy
| Oxford Bibliographies contributors | Oxford University Press | No date
This bibliography surveys debates about Islamic constitutionalism, popular sovereignty, consultation, political parties, civil rights, and democratic reform.
Comparative Frameworks and Religious Nationalism
Nationalism and Religion in Comparative Perspective
| Şener Aktürk | Nationalities Papers | 2022
This study develops a typology for understanding how religion can create, reinforce, moderate, compete with, or transcend nationalist political identities.
Beyond Secular Democracy: Religion, Politics, and Modernity
| Jeremy Menchik | Politics and Religion | 2019
This review challenges the assumption that democracy must always be secular and examines alternative relationships among religion, pluralism, law, and political participation.
Religion, Nationalism, and the Politics of Belonging
| Rogers Brubaker | Ethnic and Racial Studies | 2018
Brubaker examines how religion operates as belief, identity, civilization, institutional authority, and a boundary separating national insiders from outsiders.
Religious Nationalism: A Reference Handbook
| Atalia Omer and Jason A. Springs | ABC-CLIO | 2013
This reference work surveys Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and other religious-nationalist movements while emphasizing their historical differences.
Nationalism, Religion, and Secularization
| Jonathan Eastwood and John Prellwitz | Nations and Nationalism | 2010
The authors examine connections among religious change, secularization, national identity, and the political construction of religious communities.
Religion and Nationalism: Four Approaches
| Anthony D. Smith | Nations and Nationalism | 2003
Smith identifies several ways religion contributes to national identity, including sacred origins, chosen peoples, holy territories, collective memory, and political destiny.
Religious Nationalism and the Problem of Collective Representation
| Roger Friedland | Annual Review of Sociology | 2001
This influential article presents religious nationalism as a political project that links collective identity, sacred authority, family, territory, and state power.
The Worldwide Rise of Religious Nationalism
| Mark Juergensmeyer | Journal of International Affairs | 1996
Juergensmeyer examines the global emergence of religious-nationalist movements that challenge secular political systems with alternative visions of sacred government.
The New Religious State
| Mark Juergensmeyer | Comparative Politics | 1995
The article compares movements seeking to replace secular nationalism with political orders based on religious authority, morality, and communal identity.
Religious Nationalism and the Problem of Modernity
| Mark Juergensmeyer | Social Compass | 1994
This article considers religious nationalism as a response to secular modernity, political disappointment, cultural dislocation, and perceived moral decline.
Understanding Political Islam
Islamism After the Arab Spring: Between the Islamic State and the Nation-State
| Shadi Hamid | Brookings Institution | March 17, 2016
Hamid considers how Islamist movements responded to the competing demands of religious universalism, national politics, democratic participation, and state sovereignty.
Rethinking Political Islam
| Shadi Hamid and William McCants | Brookings Institution | August 2015
This comparative project examines how mainstream Islamist organizations in twelve countries adapted to elections, repression, revolution, governance, and ideological competition.
Democracy and Political Islam After the Arab Revolutions
| Olivier Roy | European Council on Foreign Relations | December 14, 2012
Roy argues that Islamist electoral victories after the Arab uprisings represented competition for political power rather than the establishment of unified ideological revolutions.
Islamist Parties in Power: A Work in Progress
| Marina Ottaway | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | May 23, 2012
This analysis evaluates the changing behavior of Islamist parties as they confronted coalition building, constitutional disputes, economic problems, and democratic accountability.
Whatever Happened to the Islamists?
| Roel Meijer | Netherlands Institute of International Relations | 2012
This report examines the ideological problems Islamists encounter when they attempt to transform religious virtue into practical programs of political government.
Islamists: Politics Beckons Once Again
| Nathan J. Brown | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | February 22, 2011
Brown examines how Islamist movements responded when the Arab uprisings opened new possibilities for electoral participation and political organization.
Islamist Movements and the Democratic Process
| Nathan J. Brown and Amr Hamzawy | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | March 27, 2006
The discussion addresses Islamist positions on sharia, political pluralism, women’s rights, religious minorities, elections, and peaceful transfers of power.
Islamists and Democracy: Keep the Faith
| Marina Ottaway | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | June 6, 2005
Ottaway argues that excluding peaceful Islamist parties from political competition can obstruct democratic development and strengthen claims that elections are meaningless.
The Other Face of the Islamist Movement
| Marina Ottaway | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | January 7, 2003
The article emphasizes that nonviolent Islamist parties and social movements differ substantially from militant organizations such as al-Qaeda.
U.S. Policies Shouldn’t Make Islamist Militancy a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
| Yasmine Farouk and Georges Fahmi | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | November 15, 2021
The authors warn that treating all political Islam as a security threat can strengthen authoritarian governments and encourage radicalization among excluded movements.
Christian Nationalism in Contemporary America
How Americans’ Views of the Term Christian Nationalism Are Shaped
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | May 15, 2026
This analysis compares Americans who embrace, sympathize with, reject, or remain unfamiliar with Christian nationalism and explores their competing definitions of the term.
Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | February 17, 2026
This national survey maps support for Christian nationalism and examines its relationship with education, age, party affiliation, race, region, and religious identity.
Experts Discuss Christian Nationalism and Trump’s Return
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | February 4, 2025
Researchers discuss connections among Christian nationalism, partisan identity, Donald Trump’s political coalition, authoritarianism, immigration, and democratic institutions.
The Varieties of American Christian Nationalism
| Nilay Saiya | Politics and Religion | 2025
The article distinguishes charismatic dominionism, Calvinist nationalism, and Catholic integralism as separate theological and organizational forms of Christian nationalism.
Christianity’s Place in Politics and Christian Nationalism
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024
This survey measures support for declaring Christianity the national religion, promoting Christian values, and giving the Bible influence over American law.
Christian-Nation Idea Fuels U.S. Conservative Causes
| Peter Smith | Associated Press | February 3, 2024
Historians and religious scholars evaluate claims that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation and explain how those claims influence contemporary politics.
White Nationalism Remains a Major Concern for Voters of Color
| Gabriel R. Sanchez | Brookings Institution | March 30, 2023
This analysis examines ideological overlap between white nationalism and Christian nationalism and reports particularly high concern among Black, Latino, and Asian American voters.
Understanding the Threat of White Christian Nationalism to American Democracy
| Brookings Institution and PRRI | Brookings Institution | February 9, 2023
Researchers discuss how Christian-nationalist beliefs intersect with white identity, patriarchy, antisemitism, anti-Muslim attitudes, authoritarianism, and support for violence.
Views of the U.S. as a Christian Nation
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Americans describe a Christian nation in sharply different ways, ranging from general moral influence to legal preference, political privilege, or theocracy.
Forty-Five Percent of Americans Say the U.S. Should Be a Christian Nation
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
The report shows that public support for a Christian nation does not reflect a single ideology and includes several conflicting understandings of religion’s political role.
Democracy, Law, and Divine Authority
Americans’ Views of Religion’s Role in Government and Public Life
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
This survey examines whether Americans believe religion is gaining influence and whether churches and other religious institutions should participate directly in politics.
Religion Is Sometimes Raced: Christian Nationalism as Ingroup Protection
| Brad Walker and others | Perspectives on Politics | 2025
The article investigates when Christian nationalism operates as a racialized ideology and when it functions more broadly as protection of a religious-cultural ingroup.
The Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate of Christian Nationalism
| Zoe D. Broeren and others | Politics and Religion | 2024
The experiments examine whether Christian nationalists apply the law differently to Christian insiders, religious outsiders, and political opponents.
The Psychometric Properties of the Christian Nationalism Scale
| Nicholas T. Davis and others | Politics and Religion | 2023
Researchers evaluate different methods used to measure Christian nationalism and consider whether survey questions capture a single ideology or several distinct beliefs.
Christian Political Theology as Comparative Theology
| Joshua Ralston | Cambridge University Press | 2020
This chapter compares Christian and Islamic political theology concerning divine law, public authority, pluralism, secularism, and the rule of law.
Alternative Visions of National Religious Identity
| Paul D. Miller | Cambridge University Press | 2018
The chapter compares Christian nationalism, strict secularism, and pluralist civil religion as competing models of American national identity.
The Challenge of Political Islam: Non-Muslims and the Egyptian and Jordanian Constitutions
| Nathan J. Brown | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | March 2007
Brown examines how constitutional references to Islam and sharia affect political equality, legislation, judicial interpretation, and the rights of non-Muslim citizens.
Islam and Democracy
| United States Institute of Peace | USIP | September 17, 2002
The article explains the variety of Muslim arguments about popular sovereignty, religious law, political participation, civil rights, and accountable government.
Islamic Constitutionalism and the Concept of Democracy
| United States Institute of Peace | USIP | September 2002
This resource examines attempts to reconcile divine sovereignty, constitutional limits, elected government, consultation, individual rights, and Islamic law.
Political Islam and Democracy in the Muslim World
| Council on Foreign Relations | Council on Foreign Relations | No date
This backgrounder surveys Islamist parties and governments and considers their varied relationships with elections, constitutionalism, authoritarianism, and political violence.
Populism, Islamophobia, and the Construction of Enemies
The Holy Digital Battleground
| Pol Campos Martinez | University of Groningen | September 23, 2025
This article examines how Christian-nationalist discourse, digital networks, conspiracy narratives, and anti-Muslim hostility interacted in Spain.
Confronting Christian Islamophobia
| Todd Green | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs | May 24, 2021
Green argues that Christian communities must confront Islamophobia as a form of racial and religious exclusion rather than treating it merely as interfaith misunderstanding.
The Strategic Logic of Islamophobic Populism
| Lacin Idil Oztig | Government and Opposition | 2021
This study explains why populist parties construct Islam as an existential civilizational threat and use anti-Muslim rhetoric to unite otherwise divided constituencies.
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire
| Deepa Kumar | Haymarket Books | 2021
This book page introduces an analysis of how political elites, media institutions, nationalism, war, and imperial policy contribute to anti-Muslim narratives.
Muslims and the Secular City
| Jonathan Laurence | Brookings Institution | February 28, 2020
The article places French debates about Islam within the histories of republican secularism, colonialism, decolonization, antisemitism, and right-wing populism.
Misdiagnosing Nationalism as Christian Exacerbates Islamophobia
| John W. Morehead | Religion Dispatches | March 29, 2019
The article debates whether calling exclusionary nationalism Christian accurately identifies its religious foundations or unintentionally reinforces hostility toward Christianity.
Islamophobia and the Politics of Citizenship
| Nasar Meer | Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies | 2018
The article examines how anti-Muslim politics affects citizenship, multiculturalism, public belonging, immigration policy, and the treatment of religious minorities.
Gendering Islamophobia, Racism, and White Supremacy
| Peter Hopkins | Dialogues in Human Geography | 2016
Hopkins examines gendered violence against Muslims and people perceived as Muslim and connects Islamophobia with racism, nationalism, citizenship, and white supremacy.
The Racialization of Muslims
| Saher Selod and David G. Embrick | Sociology Compass | 2013
This article explains how Muslims are socially constructed as a racialized group through surveillance, media representation, discrimination, and assumptions about national loyalty.
Islamophobia and the War on Terror
| Deepa Kumar | Race and Class | 2012
Kumar analyzes Islamophobia as a political ideology connected with military intervention, domestic security policy, racial hierarchy, and claims about Western civilization.
Islamist Parties and Political Adaptation
Between Democracy and Islam: The Rise of Islamists in Jordan
| Yael Keinan-Cohen | Religions | 2025
This article traces the development of Jordanian Islamist movements and their changing relationships with elections, monarchy, opposition politics, and regional upheaval.
Ennahda’s Uneasy Exit From Political Islam
| Hamza Meddeb | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | September 5, 2019
This report examines Ennahda’s attempt to separate political activity from religious preaching and redefine itself as a party of Muslim democrats.
The Shifting Foundations of Political Islam in Algeria
| Dalia Ghanem | French Institute of International Relations | April 2019
Ghanem describes how electoral participation, government co-optation, corruption, and generational change weakened Algeria’s formerly powerful Islamist parties.
Political Islam in Kuwait
| Courtney Freer | Brookings Institution | August 2015
This country study examines Sunni and Shia Islamist organizations, parliamentary politics, social welfare networks, tribal identities, and relations with Kuwait’s monarchy.
Political Islam in Malaysia
| Joseph Chinyong Liow | Brookings Institution | August 2015
The article examines competition between Malaysian Islamist parties and a state that has increasingly incorporated Islamic identity into nationalism and public policy.
Political Islam in Indonesia
| Alexander R. Arifianto | Brookings Institution | August 2015
This analysis describes how Indonesian Islamist parties operate within a pluralistic democracy shaped by local religious organizations, nationalism, and constitutional compromise.
Political Islam in Pakistan
| Matthew J. Nelson | Brookings Institution | August 2015
The article examines Islamist parties, military governments, electoral weakness, religious legislation, sectarianism, and debates over Pakistan’s Islamic national identity.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Future of Political Islam in Egypt
| Ashraf El-Sherif | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | October 21, 2014
The article examines the Brotherhood’s internal divisions, ideological debates, political errors, and response to the military removal of President Mohamed Morsi.
Political Islam in Morocco
| Amr Hamzawy | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | March 2008
The study considers how Morocco’s Justice and Development Party balanced religious principles, electoral strategy, monarchical authority, and demands for political reform.
Jordan and Its Islamic Movement
| Nathan J. Brown | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | November 2006
This report examines the Islamic Action Front, the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s monarchy, regional conflicts, electoral politics, and internal ideological divisions.
Christian Nationalism Beyond the United States
Christian Nationalism and Attitudes About Democracy in Africa
| John Ishiyama | Politics and Religion | 2025
Using Afrobarometer data, this study connects Christian-nationalist beliefs with weaker democratic commitment, greater authoritarian openness, and lower religious tolerance in several African countries.
Hungary’s Christian Nationalist Turn
| Freedom House | Freedom House | 2024
This country report documents the Hungarian government’s consolidation of power and its use of Christian identity, nationalism, media control, and anti-immigrant politics.
Christian Nationalism in Poland
| Aleks Szczerbiak | Journal of Democracy | 2024
This article provides context for conflicts involving Catholic identity, Polish nationalism, populist government, judicial independence, and democratic opposition.
The Role of Religion in Russia’s War on Ukraine
| Peter Mandaville | United States Institute of Peace | March 17, 2022
This analysis explains how Russian religious nationalism and claims about protecting Orthodox civilization contributed to the ideological justification for war.
Viktor Orbán’s Christian Democracy
| William A. Galston | Brookings Institution | July 28, 2021
The article examines how Hungary’s government uses Christianity, national sovereignty, family policy, immigration, and opposition to liberalism to justify illiberal rule.
The New Christian Right in Brazil
| Fábio Py and others | Politics, Religion and Ideology | 2020
The article examines evangelical political mobilization, religious conservatism, nationalism, anticommunism, and support for Jair Bolsonaro.
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin’s Foreign Policy
| Dmitri Trenin | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | February 2012
The article considers how religious institutions support Russian claims of civilizational leadership, cultural unity, traditional values, and influence in neighboring countries.
Orthodox Christianity and Nationalism in Putin’s Russia
| PONARS Eurasia contributors | PONARS Eurasia | No date
This analysis examines the alliance among the Russian Orthodox Church, state power, conservative morality, civilizational identity, and Russian nationalism.
The Christian Right in Europe
| openDemocracy contributors | openDemocracy | No date
This collection investigates Christian conservative networks influencing European policy concerning abortion, sexuality, family, education, religious freedom, and nationalism.
Christian Nationalism and the Bolsonaro Government
| Amy Erica Smith | Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs | No date
This analysis describes how evangelical and Catholic conservatives contributed to Bolsonaro’s political coalition and its positions on gender, security, family, and national identity.
Gender, Sexuality, and Social Hierarchy
Sexuality and the Rise of Christian Nationalism
| Religion & Politics contributors | Religion & Politics | June 14, 2022
The article considers how opposition to LGBTQ+ rights became connected with narratives about restoring Christian civilization, protecting children, and defending the traditional nation.
Paradoxes in the Far Right’s Gender and Sexuality Politics
| An Van Raemdonck | University of Helsinki | 2022
This research examines how European nationalist movements portray Muslim men as threats to women while simultaneously promoting patriarchal and anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Christian Nationalism and Intimate Partner Violence Myths
| Joshua B. Grubbs and others | Journal of Interpersonal Violence | 2022
The research considers whether Christian-nationalist beliefs are associated with traditional gender hierarchy and attitudes that minimize or excuse intimate partner violence.
Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Gender Equality
| Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead and Joshua B. Grubbs | Socius | 2021
The study connects Christian nationalism with opposition to women’s political leadership, feminist identities, changing family structures, and gender equality.
Islamist Politics and Women’s Mobilization
This report examines women’s participation in political parties, including Islamist organizations that have attempted to reconcile religious ideology with demands for gender inclusion.
The Gendered Politics of Religious Nationalism
| Annika Kinnvall | International Feminist Journal of Politics | 2019
This study analyzes how religious-nationalist movements respond to insecurity by idealizing male authority, female purity, traditional families, and tightly controlled sexual identities.
Gender, Religion, and Nationalism
| Deniz Kandiyoti | Nations and Nationalism | 1996
Kandiyoti explains how nationalist and religious projects use women’s bodies, family roles, dress, sexuality, and reproduction to symbolize the moral boundaries of the nation.
Women, Islamism, and the State
| Mervat Hatem | Middle East Report | 1993
The article examines how governments, Islamists, and women’s movements compete over family law, political participation, religious authority, and gender equality.
Political Islam and Gender
| Valentine M. Moghadam | Third World Quarterly | 1992
Moghadam compares Islamist gender ideologies and argues that family policy and women’s status are central to broader projects of political and social transformation.
Christian Nationalism and Transgender Rights
| Public Religion Research Institute | PRRI | No date
This analysis examines how beliefs about America’s Christian identity relate to policies governing transgender recognition, medical care, education, and public accommodations.
Violence, Radicalization, and Unequal Security Responses
Religious Nationalism and Support for Political Violence
| Miles T. Armaly, David T. Buckley and Adam M. Enders | The Journal of Politics | 2022
The study finds that religious-nationalist identity can interact with grievance, victimhood, conspiracy belief, and authoritarian attitudes to increase support for political violence.
A Virus Has No Religion
| Mohit Chandra and others | arXiv | July 11, 2021
Researchers analyze hundreds of thousands of posts containing anti-Muslim rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic and connect religious hostility with nationalist ideas about patriotism.
Persistent Anti-Muslim Bias in Large Language Models
| Abubakar Abid, Maheen Farooqi and James Zou | arXiv | January 14, 2021
The researchers find that language models repeatedly associate Muslims with violence more strongly than they associate other religious groups with negative stereotypes.
The Effect of Extremist Violence on Hateful Speech Online
| Alexandra Olteanu and others | arXiv | April 16, 2018
This study finds that extremist attacks involving Muslims as perpetrators or victims can produce increases in online hate speech and explicit advocacy of violence.
Why Countering Violent Extremism Programs Are Bad Policy
| Faiza Patel and Meghan Koushik | Brennan Center for Justice | March 16, 2017
The report argues that counter-extremism programs disproportionately surveil Muslims, rely on weak radicalization theories, and receive inadequate independent oversight.
The Radicalization Puzzle
| Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko | United States Institute of Peace | September 2011
This analysis explains that radicalization can emerge through personal grievance, group identity, political conflict, social networks, state repression, and perceived threats to sacred values.
White Christian Nationalism and the Racial Politics of Analogy
| Atalia Omer | The Immanent Frame | November 23, 2023
Omer critiques comparisons between white Christian nationalism and Islamism that ignore differences in racial power, state support, colonial history, and security policy.
The Muslim Ban and Christian Nationalism
| American Civil Liberties Union contributors | ACLU | No date
This article interprets restrictions on Muslim immigration as part of a broader political project to privilege Christian identity within American citizenship and national security policy.
Fear Thy Neighbor: Radicalization and Jihadist Attacks in the West
| Daniel L. Byman | Brookings Institution | November 15, 2017
Byman examines local radicalization, online propaganda, social isolation, political grievance, organizational recruitment, and the limits of conventional security responses.
The Rise of Far-Right Extremism in the United States
| Seth G. Jones | Center for Strategic and International Studies | November 7, 2018
This report examines white supremacist, militia, anti-government, and religiously influenced extremist movements alongside continuing threats from jihadist organizations.
Pluralism, Reform, and Alternatives
Faith-Based Organizations and Religious Nationalism
| Neera Chandhoke Deo | Politics and Religion | 2025
This article examines how religious-nationalist governments regulate Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and secular civil-society organizations differently.
Religious Diversity and National Identity
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | September 12, 2023
This cross-national research explores how religious identity, minority status, foreign influence, and political institutions shape understandings of national belonging.
Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think
| Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | July 13, 2022
This Christian critique distinguishes ordinary patriotism from an ideology that treats the nation as sacred and uses religious identity to determine political membership and power.
Against Christian Nationalism
| Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | February 3, 2021
Miller presents a conservative Christian critique of Christian nationalism and argues that Christianity should not be fused with ethnic identity or partisan control of the state.
Pluralism and Islamic Political Thought
| United States Institute of Peace | USIP | August 2010
This resource examines Islamic arguments supporting coexistence, consultation, minority rights, conflict resolution, and peaceful relations among religious communities.
Islamist Movements and the Politics of Inclusion
| Marina Ottaway and Amr Hamzawy | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | August 2008
The report evaluates whether governments, secular opposition parties, and Islamist movements are willing to accept genuine pluralism and equal political competition.
The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood
| Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke | Foreign Affairs | March 1, 2007
The authors argue that national Muslim Brotherhood organizations should be assessed individually rather than treated as a unified transnational revolutionary movement.
Can Islamists Become Democrats?
| Carrie Rosefsky Wickham | Journal of Democracy | 2004
Wickham considers whether participation in elections and civil society can encourage Islamist movements to accept pluralism, compromise, and constitutional government.
Religious Pluralism and the Future of Democracy
| Berkley Center contributors | Georgetown University | No date
Scholars discuss how democratic societies can accommodate strong religious commitments while preserving equality, freedom of conscience, and political inclusion.
The Future of Political Islam
| Council on Foreign Relations | Council on Foreign Relations | No date
Scholars discuss whether Islamist movements will moderate through democratic participation, radicalize under repression, or evolve into post-Islamist political organizations.
