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Salafism in Egypt

What is Salafism?

Who are Salafists?

Salafism and Jihad

Salafism in Egypt

Charts

WILLY FAUTRÉ

DANIEL SCHNEIDER

1 JUNE 2012

Salafism in Egypt

The recent parliamentary election in Egypt resulted in the Islamic parties obtaining a majority in

Parliament.1 The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party won nearly fifty percent of

seats whilst the Salafist’s Nour Party won about abolut twenty five percent of seats. 2

The success of the Nour Party in the election was surprising given that Salafists traditionally

avoid democratic political activity as they view it as incompatible with Islamic beliefs.

What is Salafism?

Salafism is derived from the name Salaf, meaning “predecessors” or “forefathers”. Salafism is a

conservative Islamic school of thought that seeks to return to the Islam practiced by Prophet

Mohammad and the original, or early, Muslims. Salafism has a wide spectrum of doctrines

ranging from peaceful conservative to violent extremist also known as Salafi Jihadism.3

Salafists believe in a unified Islamic state that is based on Sharia law. A prominent Salafist

preacher in Egypt has said that legislation drawn up by people is the most dangerous aspect of

democracy. This, he said, was because the source of all legislation should be from God. One

belief which is of considerable interst, in the wake of the Arab Spring, is that of political

quietism: “Muslims must not rebel against their ruler no matter how unjust or impious he is”,

however, “if a ruler ceases to be a Muslim, he can be opposed violently”.4

Who are Salafists?

In Egypt the Salafists are represented by the Nour Party, but also have a considerable influence

in the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. The participation of Salafists in

political parties is unusual considering their tradition of non-participation.5 However, even in

their participation they maintain their conviction of installing Sharia law. Spokesman for the

1 See Charts 1& 2

2BBC News. “Egypt’s Islamist parties win elections to parliament.” BBC.co.uk. 21 January

2012.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16665748

Freedom and Justice Party – 235 seats (47.2%); Nour Party – 121 seats (24.3%)

See Chart 2 3Livesy, Bruce. “The Salafist Movement.” PBS.org, 25 January 2005.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html 4 Brown, Jonathan. “Salafis and Sufis in Egypt”.Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 2011. P. 3.

Accessed: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/salafis_sufis.pdf 5El-Hennawy, Noha. “With Nour Party, Salafists try to tap into party politics.” EgyptIndepenent.com, 19 May

2011.http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/442772

Nour Party, Nader Bakar said that the party would not form an alliance with those opposed to

applying sharia law in Egypt. 6

Salafism and Jihad

Kepel explained that starting in the 1990’s Muslims in Europe began embracing Jihad, using

violence and terrorism to try to achieve their political objectives.7 Many Muslims, according to

Kepel, began to pursue the fundamentalism of Salafism as a reaction to the marginalization they

felt living in Europe. He explains that Salafists, alienated from mainstream European society, are

much more likely to fall prey to the “Jihadi guys who will feed you more savory propaganda

than the old propaganda of the Salafists who tell you to pray, fast and who are not taking

action”.8

Mamoun Fandy, a senior fellow at the Baker Institute and a specialist on Middle East politics

says that the reactionary Salafism including groups such as Al-Qaeda have their roots in the

Muslim Brotherhood which was founded in Egypt.9 He explains that Salafism views the world as

black and white, “the world is divided into two places…it is made of the world of Islam and the

world of war”. In short, Salafists believe that Islam is for everyone and therefore everyone is

either within the world of Islam or against it – as part of the “world of war”.10

From the Muslim Brotherhood came the father of Salafi Jihadism, Sayyid Qutb, the man who has

been described as the Lenin or Marx of the Salafi Jihad movement. Qutb was the Minister of

Education in Egypt who was sent by the government to the United States to study the curricula

of school teachings in the United States in 1951. In his writings he expressed his feelings of

ambivalence towards the West. He was appalled as well as intrigued by what he saw. But his

writings show that he did not feel the West or Western ideas were incompatible with Islam. After

his return to Egypt Qutb joined the Muslim Brotherhood and became one of the leaders of that

movement. After a failed assassination attempt, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser banned the

Muslim Brotherhood and had Qutb jailed and later executed in 1966.11

6Egypt Independent. “Salafi Party opposes coalition with forces who reject Sharia.” EgyptIndependent.com. 15

January 2012. http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/602891 7Livesy, Bruce. “The Salafist Movement.” PBS.org, 25 January 2005.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html 8Livesy, Bruce. “The Salafist Movement.” PBS.org, 25 January 2005.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html 9 Interview MamounFandy, PBS Frontline. 18 October 2004.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/interviews/fandy.html 10

Interview MamounFandy, PBS Frontline. 18 October 2004.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/interviews/fandy.html 11

Livesy, Bruce. “The Salafist Movement.” PBS.org, 25 January 2005.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html

While in jail Qutb wrote many books that created the ideological foundation of the Salafi Jihadist

movement and became an inspiration for many modern Jihadists including Zawahiri and bin

Laden, as well as a group called Takfirwal-Hijra which was started by a member of the Muslim

Brotherhood, Shukri Mustafa, a cell mate of Qutb. One of the main beliefs of Takfirwal-Hijra is

that true Islamists must go on a Hijra, which is an exodus, to leave the country and gather

followers to return and bring the forces back to rid the country of corrupt leaders an “infidels”.12

Salafism in Egypt

As mentioned above, the Salafists in Egypt have become involved in politics after the fall of

Mubarak. It is surprising that a group that once denounced political participation as “not

compatible with Islam” is now actively participating. However, what is not surprising is the

amount of radical conservatism they have brought to the political process in Egypt. The main

Salafist party is the Nour Party. Though the Nour Party was originally part of a coalition with the

Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, they have since abandoned that ambition.

Salafists have stated that the Nour Party will not form any alliance with parties that do not share

their desire to apply Sharia law in Egypt. 13

The Muslim Brotherhood has also told the Salafi

leaders to “reconsider their speech” because they fear they will scare people away from Islamist

movements.14

Even the Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdel Aziz has expressed his lack of support for the Salafists in

Egypt. Fears about their extremism make the Saudi government reluctant to support the Salafists

financially or otherwise. He said “Saudi Arabia itself suffers from the Salafis, who now annoy

the whole world. I support moderate Salafism, which calls for reform not extremism”.15

This rift

between the Salafists in Egypt and Wahabbist Salafists in Saudi Arabia, as well as other Islamists

in their own country (the Muslim Brotherhood) is surprising. Especially because the dominant

form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, Wahabbism, is itself a type of Salafism.16

What does this say about the success of the Nour Party in the recent Egyptian elections? If other

Salafists in the region and the Islamist party with the largest number of seats in the parliament,

the Muslim Brotherhood – which itself is considered radical by the West – reject the Salafists

12

Livesy, Bruce. “The Salafist Movement.” PBS.org, 25 January 2005.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html

13

Egypt Independent.Salafi Party opposes coalition with forces who reject Sharia. 15 Jan. 2012.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/602891 14

Sheffer, Sarah. “Muslim Brotherhood tells Salafi leaders to tone down harsh speech”. 2 Nov. 2011.

http://bikyamasr.com/47161/muslim-brotherhood-tells-salafi-leaders-to-tone-down-harsh-speech/ 15

Rashwan, Hoda. “Saudi Prince: Saudi Arabia would never support Egypt’s Salafis”. 23 Jan. 2012.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/616266 16

Wahhabi.GlobalSecurity.org. 7 Sep 2011. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/wahhabi.htm

why is it becoming so popular?17

The line between Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood is

rather unclear. The Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists “emerged from the same reformist

wave”.18

The Muslim Brotherhood’s rejection of Salafists as a party as well as Salafism as an influence

within their own party may be because a) Salafists are considered by the Muslim Brotherhood to

be a liability because of their strong conservatism19

, b) the Muslim Brotherhood actually would

and did accept a coalition with the Salafist Nour Party, but the Salafists withdrew because they

felt the Muslim Brotherhood did not share their same ideals, particularly the urgency for

application of Sharia law in Egypt20

which the Salafists feel the Muslim Brotherhood is

approaching too slowly21

.

During the protests in 2011 at Tahrir Square, several Salafi leaders condemned the rebellion,

because Salafists considered it against the tenets of their religion to rebel against a ruler. 22

A

Salafi scholar in Saudi Arabia said that even peaceful protests were considered Haram or

forbidden in Islam.23

Therefore, Saudi Arabia’s rejection of the Egyptian Salafists may be due to

a) the participation of some Salafists in the protests of the Arab Spring in Egypt and b) the recent

departure of Salafists from the practice of political quietism, or non-participation in politics.24

17

Leiken, Robert S. and Brooke, Steven.“The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood”.Foreign Affairs. March/April 2007.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/62453/robert-s-leiken-and-steven-brooke/the-moderate-muslim-brotherhood 18

Brown, Jonathan. “Salafis and Sufis in Egypt”.Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 2011. P.

5. Accessed: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/salafis_sufis.pdf 19

Khalifa, Sherif. “The Neo-Islamists”.Foreign Policy Journal. 29 January 2012.

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/01/29/the-neo-islamists/ 20

Egypt Independent.Salafi Party opposes coalition with forces who reject Sharia. 15 Jan. 2012.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/602891 21

Rubin, Barry. “Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists: Same goals; Different strategies”. TheCuttingEdgeNews.com.

18 Dec. 2011. http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=53409&pageid=20&pagename=Security 22

Brown, Jonathan. “Salafis and Sufis in Egypt”.Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 2011. P.

6. Accessed: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/salafis_sufis.pdf 23

Ammar, Manar. “Al-Azhar sheikh says protesting forbidden in Islam”. Bikyamasr.com. 31 Jan. 2011.

http://bikyamasr.com/25081/al-azhar-sheikh-says-protesting-forbidden-in-islam/ 24

Brown, Jonathan. “Salafis and Sufis in Egypt”.Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 2011.

Accessed: http://carnegieendowment.org/files/salafis_sufis.pdf

Charts

Chart 1:

http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/12/3/charts-galore-round-one-of-egypts-elections.html

Chart 2:

http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/12/3/charts-galore-round-one-of-egypts-elections.html