ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the relationship between Islam and populism in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan to see how religious populists, both inside and outside electoral politics, have been successful in mobilizing the grassroots. We argue that the Islam and populism nexus is closely related to the political form of Islam—Islamism—in which Islamist populism is framed in nationalist politics or civilizationist forms. The case studies demonstrate that pandering to the emotions of the ummah (the global community of Muslims) is a central strategy of Islamist populists who categorize ‘the people’ as victims living in crisis in an attempt to exploit the concerns of devout Muslims. The politics of victimhood and fear, xenophobia towards the West, and, in the case of East Asia, towards China, are key to the populist attack on ‘others’. In addition, the domestic ‘other’ is linked with a ‘foreign’ power to denigrate opposers, religious minorities, secularists, and liberals.
