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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

Tarek Masoud
Affiliation:
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
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Summary

This is a book about how religious parties come to dominate the political life of a nascent democracy – in this case, Egypt, a country that in February 2011 overthrew its long-reigning dictator, Hosni Mubarak. Meet any Egyptian, and though he or she will more often than not be religious, he or she will almost certainly be many other things besides. She may be a farmer, a parent, a worker, an inhabitant of the Ṣaʿīd, a doctor, a member of the Ḥuwayṭāt clan, an Alexandrian, or one of any number of combinations of these things. And yet, a survey of elections conducted in the two years following Mubarak's ouster would seem to give the impression that in matters political, all those identities were trumped by one: Islam. In the country's first postauthoritarian parliamentary election, held in the winter of 2011, Islamists – led by the Muslim Brotherhood – won two-thirds of the seats in parliament. Six months later, they captured the country's presidency (before being ejected from it by the military scarcely a year later).

To many observers used to being surprised by events during the so-called Arab Spring, the dominance of Islamists in postauthoritarian elections was the one thing that was expected. After all, during the Mubarak era, the Muslim Brotherhood amassed an impressive string of electoral victories that had, by the waning years of Mubarak's term, rendered it practically the sole opposition voice in Egypt's legislature.

Type
Chapter
Information
Counting Islam
Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt
, pp. xiii - xiv
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Preface
  • Tarek Masoud, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
  • Book: Counting Islam
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842610.001
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Preface
  • Tarek Masoud, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
  • Book: Counting Islam
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842610.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Tarek Masoud, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
  • Book: Counting Islam
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842610.001
Available formats
×