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Exploring the fluidity of Egyptian Salafism: from quietism to politics and co-optation

Using the case study of Egypt’s largest Salafi movement, the Alexandrian Da‘wa Salafiyya and its party al-Nur, this article revisits Wiktorowicz’s typology which identified three dominant factions within Salafism: purists, politicos, and jihadis (2006). Based on this Egyptian case study, I show that there is no clear boundary between the purists and the politicos. This article also makes the case for an additional category: voluntary co-optation. Instead of fitting into immutable categories, Da‘wa Salafiyya leaders move between religious and political identities depending on what they deem to be the most effective strategy for political survival. Egyptian Salafis have adopted three different strategies to ensure their political survival since the movement’s inception: quietism under Sadat and Mubarak, political activism following the 2011 Revolution, and finally co-optation by the military regime since 2013. Wiktorowicz’s categories are best interpreted as time-bounded pragmatic political strategies rather than finite and static identities.

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1. According to Google Scholar, as of February 2023, the piece was cited 1141 times including in several prominent works such Torelli, Merone, and Cavatorta (2012), Kilcullen (2009), Neumann (2013), or Commins (2006)

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2. The fieldwork consisted mainly in ethnographic fieldwork with followers of the Da‘wa Salafiyya. I have also conducted complementary interviews including with over a dozen public figures of the movement such as shaykhs and politicians. These structured interviews are referenced when relevant in this article.

3. Salafis typically do not cite one source when stating this precept, but sources in Islamic law are manifold; Ahmad ibn Hanbal (died 855) defended inadmissibility or rebellions and revolts. It came to a point that Islamic scholars even came to perceive withstanding unfair rulers as a marker of faith and resolve (Ghobadzdeh and Akbarzadeh (2015). Generally, Taqi ad-Din Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), a medieval scholar known by most Salafis and reinterpreted famously by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), is said to have defended rebelling against rulers under certain circumstances and his historical fatwas has been used to justify violence action. However, this is a matter of debate, and several scholars now defend that his work was taken out of context (Michot, 2006; Islam and Eryiğit, 2022).

4. Author’s translation

5. Major protests took place in June 2013, but it was later reported that Tamarrud had clear links to the military and State Security who were involved in supporting the movement. (Ketchley, 2017).

6. Lacroix explains that the Brotherhood’s appointment of a Muslim Brotherhood loyalist and Mursi’s proposition to create a “preachers’ syndicate” which could sideline Da‘wa shaykhs who might not be able to qualify to join it presented an “existential threat” to the Da‘wa which fuel their opposition (2016a: 11).

7. Lacroix also writes about the photo: “Several newspapers who published the photo of Sisi and his supporters after July 3^rd did not mention the presence of the Salafi representative who was sitting in the second row and not clearly visible at the press conference. (2016b:12) Some also wrongly identified him as Bassam al-Zarqa as opposed to Galal al-Mura, such as “Supporters of 3 July 2013: Where Are They Now? - Features - Egypt - Ahram Online,” accessed September 27, 2017, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/151/133707/Egypt/Features/Supporters-of%2D%2DJuly%2D%2DWhere-are-they-now.aspx.”

8. “Sisi Appoints Salafist Party Members to Egyptian Senate - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East,” accessed November 6, 2021, https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2020/10/egypt-senate-elections-salafist-Nur-party-sisi-appoint.html

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The author would like to thank the Rhodes Scholarship and the CÉDEJ for supporting the fieldwork that enabled this research.

Not applicable

This research was conducted with the support of the Rhodes Trust in the context of a Rhodes scholarship.

1. Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

   Laurence Deschamps-Laporte

1. Laurence Deschamps-Laporte

Not applicable.

Correspondence to Laurence Deschamps-Laporte.

None.

The research was approved by Social Sciences and Humanities Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee (SSH IDREC) at the University of Oxford reference C1A 12-159 and C1A 14-188.

The author declares no competing interests.

The author would like to sincerely thank the guest editors of this special issue for leading this important project as well as the anonymous reviewers who provided constructive comments and feedback which greatly contributed to improving the manuscript.

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Deschamps-Laporte, L. Exploring the fluidity of Egyptian Salafism: from quietism to politics and co-optation. Cont Islam 17, 223–241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-023-00518-9

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• Accepted: 23 February 2023

• Published: 01 April 2023

• Issue Date: July 2023

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-023-00518-9

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