The fact that religion is not disappearing but changing, is not necessarily reassuring. We are witnessing a shift towards religion as an identity marker and a lifestyle, leading to new tensions. Religious lifestyles are increasingly perceived as deviant from ‘normality’, and therefore as threatening. Thus, religion becomes object of securitization policies. This article argues that this calls for a double answer. Firstly, a realist assessment is required of whether so-called religious extremism is really threatening, or just unsettling to modern Western perception. Secondly, the whole idea of ‘security’ as policy goal has to be reconsidered, using the alternatives religions present.