ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the central trope of European right-wing populism: the defence of Europe Christian’s roots against Islam. Against presentism, the chapter argues that to understand religious populism, it is necessary to turn to the longue durée of European history and symbols such the Abendland, the notion of Europe as a political, cultural and religious entity with Christian roots. In the current time of political-existential uncertainty, the Abendland functions as a condition of possibility for the definition of ‘us’ against ‘them’, rendering the populist mobilisation against Islam as part of a larger ‘quest’ for a European identity.
