This paper aims to analyze the fragile status of religious and ethno-religious minorities in the European landscape within the framework of rising right-wing populism and democratic erosion. As populist actors increasingly mobilize religious symbols and "civilizational identity" to build a religiously inspired national identity,"minorities are frequently otherized or framed as existential threats to national sovereignty. This study explores how the instrumentalization of a mainstream faith by hybrid regimes accellerates the backsliding of pluralism and the curtailment of minority rights through both legislative restrictions and exclusionary policies. Using a comparative framework—with a focus on contemporary developments in Hungary, Italy, France, and Ukraine, the paper investigates how populist-authoritarian agendas take advantage of law-and-order rhetoric to justify the surveillance and marginalization of minority groups. By examining the nexus between faith and ethnic identity, the study contributes to our understanding of how the redefinition of the public sphere through the logics of exclusion weakens democratic resilience. Finally, it argues that the treatment of religious minorities serves as a critical compass to map the trayectory of states from a merely illiberal democracy to instituzionalized authoritarianism.