Islamism and Democracy: The Dilemma of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Youth
Abstract
Abstract Views: 114
The paper is a follow-up analysis of a study about the rise of Islamist youth as a subculture in the Egyptian context in recent years. Focusing on the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as an organizational entity, the study has classified youth into „supportive‟ youth in terms of their organizational attachment and „critical‟ youth, who have called for more democracy and youth empowerment. Critical MB youth have been further subdivided into those who have left the organization and those who have stayed in it despite their political and/or ideological disagreements with the organization. The subculture of critical Islamist youth, notably MB youth, has conspicuously converged with other liberal and secular Egyptian youths regarding their views about democracy. The proposed study suggests some form of internal mobility, as exhibited by the above classification, where based on their altered stance towards democracy a number of „critical‟ Islamist youth have joined the „supportive‟ camp and a number of „supportive‟ Islamist youth have developed „radicalized‟ stances. Interestingly enough, some level of convergence could bind supportive and critical Islamist MB youth together, at the expense of their relationship with other liberal and secular youths. The paper is based on semi-structured interviews and content analysis using academic sources and journalistic material
Downloads
References
akif (The Muslim
Brothers from Hassan El-Banna to Mahdi Akef). El-Mahrousa, 1988.
al-Anani, K. “The Young Brotherhood in Search of a New Path.” Current Trends in
Islamist Ideology. Volume 9. Hudson Institute: Center on Islam, Democracy, and
the Future of the Muslim World, 96-109, 2009.
al-Banna, Hassan. Majmu‟
at Rasa‟il al-Imam al-Shahid Hassan al-Banna. Cairo: AlMaktaba al-Tawfiqiyya, 1940.
Barrett, Richard. The Islamic State. 2014.
Bokhari, Kamran., and Fraid Senzai. Political Islam in the Age of Democratization. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Bubalo, Anthony Greg Fealy., and Whit Mason. Zealous Democrats: Islamism and
Democracy in Egypt, Indonisea, and Turkey. Lowy Institute for International
Policy, 2008.
Cleary, Mathew., and Rebecca Glazier. “Contemporary Islamism: Trajectory of a Master
Frame.” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24 (2), (2007): 1-27.
Dahlberg, L. “Democracy via Cyberspace: Mapping the Rhetorics and Practices of Three
Prominent Camps.” New Media and Society 3 (2), (2001): 157-177.
Demant, Peter. Islam vs. Islamism: The Dilemma of the Muslim World. Westport, Conn.:
Praeger, 2006.
Denoeux, Guilain. “The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam.” Middle East
Policy 9 (2), June 2002.
Fahmy, George. “al-Sirā' 'ala Qiyādat Jamā'at al-'Ikhwān al-Muslimīn fi MiSr” (The
Conflict over the Leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood Group in Egypt).
Carnegie, 4 July 2015, http://carnegie-mec.org/2015/07/14/ar-60720/idgl
Gamson, W. Talking Politics. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Habib, R. “Ru‟ya l-il-Mustaqbal al-Siyasiyy li-l-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn: al-Ikhwān Bayna
al-Dac
awiyy w-al-Siyaasiy” (A Vision of the Political Future for the Muslim
Brothers: The Brothers between the Proselytizing and the Political). In 'Azmat alIkhwan al-Muslimin (The Crisis of the Muslim Brothers). Edited by Amr AlShobaky. Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, 13-58, 2009.
Hawwa, S. al-Islam (Islam). Cairo: Wahba Library, 1977.
Hosni, Dina. “The Potential Rise of an Islamist Youth within 25 January Revolts: A Case
Study of the Muslim Brotherhood Youth.” Unpublished Thesis, American
University in Cairo, 2013.
el-Houdaiby, I. “Islamism in and after Egypt‟s Revolution.” In Bahgat Korany and Rabab
El-Mahdi. Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond, AUC, 2012.
Ismail, Salwa. “Being Muslim: Islam, Islamism and Identity Politics.” Government and
Opposition 39 (4), (2004): 614-631.
Khawaja, M. “Repression and Popular Collective Action: Evidence from the West Bank.”
Sociological Forum 8 (1), (1993): 47-71.
Melucci, A. Nomads of the Present. London: Hutchinson Radius, 1989.
Polijarevic, E. “Exploring Individual Motivation for Social Change: Mobilization of the
Muslim Brotherhood's Youth in Pre-Revolutionary Egypt.” PhD Thesis,
Florence: European University Institute, 2012.
Qutb, Sayyid. Ma'ālim fi-l-Tarīq (Milestones). Dar Ammar for Publication, 2009.
Schumpeter, J. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. London: Allen, 1976.
Schwedler, Jilian. Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen.
Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Snow, David A., E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven K. Worden, Robert D. Benfor. “Frame
Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.”
American Sociological Review 51 (4), (1986): 464-481.
Sorensen, G. Democracy and Democratization. University of Notre Dame, 1993.
Stilt, Kristen. “Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Egyptian Constitution of
1971.” In Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes. Tom Ginsburg and Alberto
Simpser (eds.), 111-140, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Tammam, H. Al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn: Sanawat ma Qabl al-Thawra (The Muslim
Brotherhood: The Years before the Revolution), al-Shorouq, 2012.
Wickham, Carrie. Moblilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt.
New York; Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2002.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
.png){kind=icon}
