In Western Europe at the turn of the twenty-first century, a new wave of anti-immigrant xenophobia has provided evidence of an edgy political and cultural response to the uncertainties of a post-Cold War world. This religious rebellion in the most modern of Western societies is one of the more puzzling features of the modern era. It is readily understandable that politicised religion could emerge at this moment of history in other parts of the world – Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, for examples. In these cases religious nationalism is a lingering response to colonialism, and traditional culture becomes a resource for a revived sense of national identity. What is less obvious is the way in which the same process has been part of the post-Cold War search for identity in the more developed parts of the world, including those societies that were dominant in the colonial era. In Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in the developed world, religious activism primarily associated with Christianity has surfaced with a vengeance at the same time that anti-colonial Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim religious movements have been active elsewhere. In all of these cases, however, the reasons may have been similar. These may be instances of a global response to political uncertainty, in which religion has provided a way of thinking about public virtue, collective identity and world order in the face of a social reality that seems to be losing its moorings in a post-Cold War world.