In one of the many bizarre twists of Egypt's recent political convulsion, hardline Salafi parties look poised to replace the Muslim Brotherhood as the most important Islamist players in the political process. It's a situation ripe with irony, writes Senior Scholar Marina Ottaway.
In one of the many bizarre twists of Egypt's recent political convulsion, hardline Salafi parties look poised to replace the Muslim Brotherhood as the most important Islamist players in the political process. It's a situation ripe with irony: For years, the Brotherhood represented the "good guys" of the Islamist world -- a movement that other parties could deal with -- while the Salafis were irreconcilable zealots bent on establishing an Islamist state by any means necessary. But with former "bad guys" redeeming themselves by siding with the opposition in the weeks preceding President Mohamed Morsy's ouster, they now have a shot at becoming the standard-bearers for Islamist politics in the Arab world's largest nation.
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