Clashing Civilizations and Civilizational Identities in Populist Discourses

Dear Colleagues,

Populism is currently a part of mainstream politics several nations the world over. In different places, populism takes the form of political parties, political leaders, and social movements. At best a thin-centered ideology, and possibly a political style or type of discourse, populism cannot succeed as a form of political ideation on its own. Rather, it must always be adhered to a ‘thick’ ideological programme. Populism thus emerges in various left-wing and right-wing forms, and as more eclectic or centrist programmes. In each case, populist leaders argue that government elites are ignoring the interests of the people, or the majority population, claim themselves to be uniquely able to represent the popular will. However, the ‘thick’ ideology is required to provide the framework for defining the characteristics of ‘the people’ and ‘elites’, and for explaining why governing elites have failed the nation, or driven it to the point of crisis.

Recent scholarship has shown how civilizational notions of identity play a key role in supplying the framework—in part or whole—populists require to create a political environment in which they can achieve political and, in particular, electoral success. The use of civilizational rhetoric by populists has been noted by Roger Brubaker, who argues that a number of right-wing populist parties in Europe construe opposition between self and other not in narrowly national but in broader civilizational terms. While the idea, concept, social construction or phenomenon of civilization cannot be reduced to religion, in most cases, civilizations and religions are either linked very deeply or are framed as such. As a matter of fact, Brubaker’s argument has been strengthened by scholarship which demonstrates the increasing use of rhetoric among populist leaders in Europe defining national belonging in civilizational terms, and at times claiming that the Christian West and Islam are locked in a clash of civilizations. What is striking about European populist parties is that few could be described as ‘religious’ in any normal sense of the word, as embodiments of the ‘belonging without believing’ phenomenon, yet they have no trouble in identifying Europeans as belonging to Christian or Judeo-Christian civilization, and Muslims as belonging a wholly different and incompatible Islamic civilization, and justifying their anti-Muslim exclusionary politics on this basis.

There is little scholarship examining notions of civilizational identity among populist parties and their supporters beyond Europe, and the role they play in defining the rhetorical and ideological contours of populist politics. Yet, it is possible to identify a civilizational element in the rhetoric of Donald Trump, particularly during his campaign for President of the United States in 2016, in which he called America part of Judeo-Christian civilization, and claimed “Islam hates us”. Beyond the West, in Turkey, the ruling AKP combines populism with Islamism and a neo-Ottoman foreign agenda, in which the government positions Turkey as the leading nation of Islamic civilization, defines ingroups and outgroups via religious identity, and at times claims there is a clash of civilizations between Islam and the Christian West. It is possible to find civilizational rhetoric in populists in India, where a key premise of the Hindu nationalist philosophy of the ruling BJP is the revival of Hindu civilization and culture, and where the government increasingly claims Muslims are unwelcome foreigners. It is therefore possible, even likely, that civilizational identity plays an important role in identity construction among populists in many nations. Equally, there is clearly a relationship between religion and civilizational populism, but the exact nature of this relationship is unclear, and may differ across societies. The relationship between nationalism and civilizational identity in populist discourse and ideology also appears complex, and is likely to differ widely between populist groups and leaders, and across different societies.

This Special Issue therefore invites contributors to consider questions/topics which are not limited to, but inclusive of, the following:

• The relationship between religion, civilization, and populism;
• Populist identity construction and civilization, particularly in non-Western cases;
• The relationship between national and civilizational identity in populist rhetoric;
• Performative populism (gestures, emotional tone, imagery, visual politics and symbolism) and civilization;
• Perspectives of the targets of civilizational populism: particularly religious minorities;
• Responses to the growth of civilizational identity in populist movements and parties;
• Ethnic nationalism and its relationship with civilizational narratives among populists;
• The ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis and its use in populist discourse;
• Use of digital technologies by civilizational populists.

Prof. Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz
Guest Editor

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Title: The Religious Rhetoric and Anti-Western Populism: The Socio-Political Ideology of Ayatollah Khamenei

Abstract: Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei (1939- ) is the second and current supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran, in office since 1989. His decisive role in directing the cultural policies inside as well as determining the foreign policy of Iran, makes it necessary to examine his thoughts. According to the constitutional authority of the Supreme Leader, Khamenei's increasing desire in more than three decades of his leadership to institutionalize his anti-Western thoughts in a country with more than 90% Shiʻa population has required a populist strategy. On the one hand, he believes in Islamic awakening, and therefore his anti-imperialist attitude has anti-Semitic (anti-Zionist in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political discourse) and anti-Western characteristics. On the other hand, he thinks of Iranian nation as the Umm al-Qura in a predominantly Sunni Middle East, and emphasizes doubling the population of Iran, because he believes that creating a new Islamic civilization is the ultimate goal of the Iranian Revolution. Moreover, the Nuclear Program of Iran was followed by extensive economic sanctions from Western countries. Khamenei, who stubbornly insists on a no-relation policy with the United States, addresses the Iranian nation in the statement of “the Second Phase of the Revolution” in 2019, to persuade them to stand against the Western attacks by adopting Resistance Economy. To advance these economic austerities, Khamenei relies on the traditional part of Iranian society, among whom conservative ethics can still have a fundamental value. In this regard, he considers social networks to be the promoters of Western vulgar culture and calls for their extensive restrictions and censorship. For this reason, in his last statement (February 2022) about Iran's cyberspace and opposition media, he called for a combined attack on them since they have targeted Islamic culture – called cultural invasion in Khamenei’s terminology. Thus, to justify his statements, Ayatollah Khamenei employs religious rhetoric as most of his keen followers are still from the conservative class of Iranian society.

Title: Civilisational replacement theories in populist far rightand islamist discourses

Abstract: Rooted in the premise and scholarship that modern populist constructions of far right and islamist discourses are co-dependent, this article examines the ontological and epistemological foundations of their shared civilizational identities. Tracing civilizational replacement theories as a central idea in both discourses, the article brings to the foreground a shared "populist mindset" to understand, reject, and mitigate changing demographics. Thus far, research on the use of replacement theories has focused on the modern far right, using rhetoric and performances, such as terror attacks in Norway, New Zealand, and more recently, the United States and Australia, as evidence. Taking a discourse-theoretical approach that posits the extra-linguistic nature of discourse, the article examines the symbolic and affective components of replacement discourses. In doing so, it shifts attention from the explicit to the implicit by attributing value to the unspoken embedded in the use of symbols, myths, and imagery to construct a clashing paradigm. By examining the Muslim as the dominant clashing subject in global politics, it reveals the hidden and disguised components that give both discourses its affective power. Connecting these mutually exclusive populist discourses through a civilizational lens contributes to current research that aims at comprehending the widespread support for a clashing civilizational paradigm.

Title: National Identity Formation through Civilizational Populist Discourse: The Historical-Discourse Analysis of Imran Khan's Public Addresses in 2022

Abstract: The foundational work on civilizational populism by Yilmaz and Morrieson (2021) has set the stage to explore the complex relationship between civilizational and national identities and how it supports the populist antagonist discourse beyond national boundaries. Applying this issue to the case of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), a populist party in Pakistan, the chapter shares the findings of critical discourse analysis of the public addresses of PTI founder and chairman Imran Khan, delivered in 2022, the year when he lost his position of Prime Minister of Pakistan through a no-confidence motion by the parliament. Using the Discourse-Historical Approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2001) the chapter reviews the discursive strategies used by Imran Khan for the identity formation of Pakistanis around Islamic civilization and critically analyses the possible implications of this discourse on religious extremism in Pakistan. Also, the chapter critically looks at the shift in discourse while he was in power and after his ouster to see if there is any shift in the discursive strategies of populists in power and out of power.