AbstractPopulism has been on the rise from the United States to India. Populist leaders have used the veneer of a national crisis to legitimize a leadership that dignifies a section of the population over another. The strategy of cultural populists could lead to terrible consequences to those who may not subscribe to the political beliefs of the leaders. This article examines cultural populists in several Muslim democracies. Applying the method of agreement and method of difference together with calculation of the effective number of parties, this article analyzes the phenomenon of cultural populism in Indonesia, Malaysia and Tunisia. It is argued that political diversity in a democratic system encourages the rise of cultural populism. This paper adds to the growing literature on populism through a comparative analysis of Muslim democracies in Asia and elsewhere.