Authoritarian thought and deed (whether expressed through State totalitarianism, social or religious community oppression or lone wolf acts by deranged individuals) is the panacea to which many anxious, frustrated and angry people of unsettled mind turn in troubled times like the 1930s and now. 

The ghostly apparition in saner minds of authoritarianism accounts for increased current interest in zombie, werewolf, and vampire tales (at the trivial level) and quality dystopian novels like The Handmaid’s Tale and in worried political commentary and analysis (at the more serious level).

The villain religion isn’t Islam, it’s the yearning for sanctified authoritarianism in any religion or ideology.  Likewise, the political or Sate villain isn’t Putin like autocracy, it’s the willingness to approve oppressive policies in otherwise liberal democracies as well as State suppression or terror against domestic opponents in authoritarian regimes.