The Islamists vs. The Markets: Egypt’s Election Analyzed

[rug]

December 1, 2011
By Haroon Moghul

In Hugh Roberts’ excellent essay in last week’s London Review of Books, he makes a common enough point: “Religion had little to do with the upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt.” But to anyone paying attention to the Arab Spring, that might seem an absurd conclusion. After all, it is religious parties that seem to be doing very well for themselves.

Not to mention, “religion” is an incredibly difficult term to capture, especially when trying to analyze volatile and complex movements not even a year old. But let’s see where we stand, electorally.

In Morocco, recent elections have put forward an Islamist party with the same name as Turkey’s governing party—they are not connected, however—and the King has nominated an Islamist as Prime Minister as well. The Moroccan King saw the Arab spring arrived around him, and pushed reforms to preempt any uprising in his country.

In Tunisia, the Islamists won a plurality of the vote; now, the latest news from Egypt suggests that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, as well as the primary Salafi party, al-Nour, are doing quite well. (Jadaliyya has a great and exhaustive round-up, with all the detail you ever wanted). There will be three rounds of voting for the lower house of the Egyptian Parliament, and these results so far only reflect the first round. There will be separate procedures for the upper house and for president.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/5454/the_islamists_vs._the_markets%3A_egypt%E2%80%99s_election_analyzed/

[tabatha]

1. " I also believe Tunisia is, in the short-run, in much better shape than Egypt,

and its Islamist party seems a lot nuanced and ready for government."

I believe the same for Libya.

[rug]

2. Time will tell.

There a lot of balls in the air across the whole region. I'd wear a helmet until I could see where they're coming down.