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The Challenge

Democracy is under pressure worldwide.

Authoritarian movements and governments are turning to religion to secure power, silence opponents, weaken institutions, and erode human rights.

Religion is used by political and religious actors for different purposes.

For many, it is a tool — a way to mobilize voters, claim moral legitimacy, and dismantle democracy step by step.

For others, it is the ultimate goal: a theocracy where governments dictate not only law and politics, but also doctrine and faith.

Together, these strategies merge into a single outcome: the steady replacement of democratic norms with systems that leave fewer rights and less freedom for everyone.

Religion is the common denominator of authoritarian politics today.

This dynamic now shapes the lives of more than two billion people worldwide. In the United States and Hungary, governments promote Christian nationalism to mask their corruption and autocratic capture. In Russia, the Kremlin’s alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church leadership frames the war in Ukraine as a sacred mission and repression at home as the defence of “traditional values.” In India and Turkey, Hindu nationalism and the Turkish-Islamic synthesis erode the rule of law, election integrity and minority rights. In Brazil, religious mobilization fueled Jair Bolsonaro’s bid to overturn the election, while in Uganda, religious networks pushed through laws threatening LGBTQ+ people with the death penalty.

Clergy and faith actors stand at the heart of this conflict, unwillingly drawn into a struggle they did not start.

These political projects do not operate in isolation. They are amplified and financed by Big Tech billionaires who profit from polarizing platforms, oil and gas oligarchs, as well as aristocrats protecting their wealth by bankrolling anti-rights organizations and movements worldwide.

These organisations actively disseminate hate, discredit democratic norms and promote extremist politicians and policy platforms. People of faith everywhere are strategically targeted with disinformation and political messaging, manipulating them into mainstream extremist ideologies, giving authoritarian politics the appearance of moral legitimacy.

The global religious right thrives on disinformation, fear, and manufactured division.

Authoritarians follow a clear playbook. They start with anti-rights campaigns, wrapped in religious language and fueled by disinformation and fear. They polarize society and weaken minority protections. Once in office, they close civic space, targeting civil society, universities, independent media, dissenting faith voices, and more. They incite hostility, and bend once-independent institutions to their will. With opposition contained and voting access restricted, they capture courts and hollow out the rule of law.

Authoritarians learn from each other — and spread their models across borders. 

The religious right is building a world where power, not rights, decides who belongs.

The religious right has become a transnational movement: financed by billionaires, amplified by disinformation and authoritarian governments, and legitimized by religion.

It is powerful, but not unchallenged. Around the world, people of faith are standing up for democracy.

Discover how faith can be a force for democracy →