Religious claims adopted for instrumental legitimacy can come to genuinely saturate the adopting movement.

Evidence

This status quo arrangement was the outcome of a bargain between the secular and the religious forces reflecting the political balance of power at the time. Yet, secular Zionism, which reached this arrangement with the religious forces, has itself been imbued with religious values and claims that were necessary to establish the legitimacy of the colonial project. The religious claims permeated the very fundamentals of the settler-colonial state-building and continue to penetrate and spread among the secular sector of society. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 512

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reform movements succeed by marrying their cause to prevailing religious currents — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 409; Secular political movements can weaponize religious claims they do not believe. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 495; A secular tyrant could win legitimacy by adopting religious identity — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 688 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Secular political movements can weaponize religious claims they do not believe. #qualifies (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 495
• A secular tyrant could win legitimacy by adopting religious identity #exemplifies (0.78) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 688
• Reform movements succeed by marrying their cause to prevailing religious currents #expands (0.75) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 409