This chapter establishes the theoretical foundation for understanding how political leaders instrumentalise religion for strategic political purposes in modern democracies. Through a compelling historical lens, it traces religion’s enduring political influence from ancient civilisations to contemporary politics, decisively challenging the secularisation thesis that predicted religion’s retreat from public life. Building on this historical foundation, the chapter develops a novel typology that reconceptualises religious instrumentalisation as three fluid strategies: conservatism, nationalism, and populism. Unlike rigid categorisations that dominate existing scholarship, this framework treats these approaches as complementary tools that political actors deploy simultaneously based on contextual demands. This theoretical framework moves beyond simplistic binaries of “moderate versus extreme” or “traditional versus modern” Islamic movements, offering instead a complex understanding of how religion operates as political capital in democratic contexts. The chapter sets the stage for examining how Erdoğan, Nawaz Sharif, and Mahathir strategically blend these approaches to build political legitimacy while managing the inherent contradictions between democratic institutions and religious authority.