The decline of revolutionary Islam in Algeria and Egypt

Abstract

Despite savage killings in Algeria and intermittent attacks on government officials and foreigners in Egypt, the Islamist advance has come to a halt in both countries. Revolutionary Islamists no longer represent a real threat to the survival of the secular authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. Brutal as their methods have been, militant Islamists could not match the counter-violence unleashed by these regimes. The regimes' military successes have not, however, led to peace, and their campaigns have yet to crush Islamist insurgency. Authoritarian policies from Cairo and Algiers have marginalised and alienated the militant Islamist opposition, pushing it towards the politics of terror. In the absence of substantive political and economic reforms, low-intensity conflict is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.