Islamist Right-Wing Populism, Authoritarian Majoritarianism, and Conditional Cosmopolitanism: Supporter Perspectives from Turkey and Pakistan

Cosmopolitanism is most widely understood as a political position that, based on a shared status of citizens of the world ( kosmopolitês ), all human beings are equal. Populism and cosmopolitanism are typically framed in opposition to one another. However, such accounts overlook a crucial dimension: how supporters of populists engage with cosmopolitan discourses themselves. This article examines how supporters of Islamic populist movements in Turkey and Pakistan engage with the idea of cosmopolitanism. Drawing on 105 qualitative interviews with supporters of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), we argue that Islamic populism does not simply reject cosmopolitan ideals. Instead, supporters articulate a form of conditional, hierarchical cosmopolitanism, in which diversity and pluralism are rhetorically embraced but practically constrained by Sunni Muslim moral and political supremacy. This analysis contributes to both populism and cosmopolitanism studies by demonstrating that populist movements can reconfigure cosmopolitan discourses within exclusionary religious-nationalist frameworks. Islamic populism thus presents not a wholesale rejection of cosmopolitanism, but its selective appropriation and redefinition to justify moral and political hierarchies. Populism scholarship needs to reconsider the framing of populism and cosmopolitanism as inherently antagonistic.