Protests, Islamism and the waning prospect of revolution in Egypt

Abstract

Popular uprisings across the Arab world from late 2010 soon transformed its political geography. Authoritarian regimes were confronted with challenges from their citizens. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak's security forces, epitomised by the Interior Ministry, had formerly managed to contain outbreaks of protests in the opening decade of the twenty-first century. However, the organising and mobilising of protests by groups such as Kefaya led to a wider social awareness of the looming prospect of the political inheritance of the office of president from father to son, cultivation of democratic ideals and values, and cross-ideological links expressed in a coalition of different political actors. The arrival of the Arab Spring in Egypt was inflected in this dissenting context. Broader regional trends held the promise of democratic transitions, at least persisting in Tunisia, which was somewhat dashed in the commotion generated by the rise of a secular-Islamist divide in Egypt's political scene. Familiar objections were raised against the very processes pushing forward the transition of democracy centred upon Islamist electoral successes. Secularism was contrasted with theocracy in the contest over who was the authentic guardian of the Egyptian revolution. Political acumen acquired in the struggle against the Mubarak regime, espousal of the norms of democracy and the transcending of ideological affiliations among Egypt's intelligentsia and activists appear to have been forgotten in the staking of political territory.