Transformations and Prospects

Esposito, John L.; Rahim, Lily Zubaidah; Ghobadzadeh, Naser

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62256-9_10

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Indeed, due to the idea that Islam embraces a legal and political system, its relations with positive law, secular states, and politics have long been under scrutiny (Al-Na'im Na, 2008;Esposito, 1998;Hussin, 2021;Khadduri, 1956;Vatikiotis, 1987). In this regard, Islamism -as a phenomenon at the intersection of politics and religionhas fed countless debates among academics (Ayubi, 1991;Burgat, 2020;Esposito, 1997;Esposito et al, 2018;Gana and Aït Aoudia, 2020;Kepel, 2000;Lewis, 2010;Roy, 1994). After 2011, Egypt has witnessed the birth of several Islamist political parties, which took part in the elections, and in the process of writing a new constitution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Law and political Islam’s transformations: Egyptian Islamists and the notions of a civil state and a religious party

2023

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Two notions have been at the center of the Egyptian constitutional debates since 2011: the ‘civil state’ and the ‘religious party’. The Muslim Brothers have played on the ambiguity of the notion of a ‘civil state’ as being neither secular nor theocratic, just as their understanding of an Islamic state. The Salafi al-Nūr Party has long refused to embrace the notion. Nevertheless, in 2019 it obtained from the Parliament’s Speaker a definition close to the one defended by the Muslim Brothers and endorsed it as a victory against the secular interpretation of the term. The same ambiguity appears regarding the notion of a ‘religious party’. The al-Nūr Party tried to prevent the interdiction of such parties in the 2014 Constitution. At the same time, it distances itself from the notion, and abides by the law, including Christian members, presenting female candidates, and organically separating political and religious activities.

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