The interplay of regional and domestic politics in Egypt: the case of Salafism

ABSTRACT

The Islamist landscape expanded after the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 when Salafi movements joined the Muslim Brotherhood and entered the political arena. This article analyses the pragmatic response of the Salafi al-Nour Party both during the Muslim Brotherhood government and after the coup d’état that brought General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power and the army back to the forefront. It argues that the al-Nour Party's responses were articulated around mechanisms of adaptation, collaboration and competition that were influenced not only by changes on the domestic scene, but also by regional geopolitical rivalries between Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

KEYWORDS:

• Egypt
• political Islam
• Salafism
• Al-Nour Party
• Muslim Brotherhood
• Gulf rivalries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This article was written under the auspices of the R&D Project, ‘Crisis and Regional Change Processes in North Africa: The Implications for Spain’ (CSO2017-84949-C3-3-P), financed by the Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO), the State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Notes on contributors

Bárbara Azaola-Piazza

Bárbara Azaola-Piazza is associate professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and research fellow at the Study Group on Arab and Muslim Societies (GRESAM) at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. Her research focuses on the domestic politics and foreign policy of Egypt.

Miguel Hernando de Larramendi

Miguel Hernando de Larramendi is professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, where he leads the Study Group on Arab and Muslim Societies (GRESAM) and the research project ‘Crises and regional processes of change in North Africa’. His research focuses on political systems in the Maghreb and Spanish foreign policy towards the region. He has co-edited with Irene Fernández-Molina (2020): Foreign Policy in North Africa. Navigating Global, Regional and Domestic Transformations.