Religious Freedom and Populism: The Appropriation of a Human Right and How to Counter It

Populism is a growing threat to human rights. They are appropriated, distorted, turned into empty words or even their opposite. The contributors to this volume examine these practices using the example of freedom of religion or belief, a human right that has become a particular target of right-wing populists and extremists worldwide. The contributions not only show the rhetorical patterns of appropriation and distortion, but also demonstrate for various countries which social dynamics favor the appropriation in each case and propose how to strengthen human rights and the culture of debate in democratic societies.

Bernd Hirschberger works as a human rights advisor for the German Commission for Justice and Peace. Before starting a career as practitioner, he graduated with a PhD degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, examining external communication during asymmetric conflict in social media.

Katja Voges is head of the Human Rights and Religious Freedom Team at the Pontifical Mission Society missio Aachen. From 2013 to 2015 she taught French, religious education and physical education at a secondary school, followed by study and research stays on intercultural and interreligious dialogue in Rabat and Paris. She wrote her theological dissertation on the topic of religious freedom in Christian-Muslim dialogue.