CAIRO -- The military coup that ousted President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood this week could open the way for an even more conservative Islamist faction to make a run for the Egyptian leadership.
Nader Bakar of the ultraconservative Nour Party backed progressive Islamists during last year's political campaigns but may be less inclined this time around to stifle aims of bringing the purest form of Islam into the politics of a country whose population is 90% Muslim.
As Egypt again braces for elections, Nour and other Salafi parties can be expected to advance their agendas against a revival of secular and moderate voices rising from an opposition backed by the army.
Islamists across the region are outraged over the fall of the Brotherhood and the arrest of its leaders by an army they condemn for deposing Egypt's first freely elected president. But amid the fury are questions over how to keep the goal of political Islam alive, not only here but in other countries, such as Tunisia and Libya, rising from the upheavals of the "Arab Spring."
Some wonder whether Islam in its purest form has a place in politics. Many clerics regard the form of Islam embraced during Morsi's short tenure as a compromise over the imposition of God's will. The coup made Islamists even more suspicious of the ballot box and is forcing them to decide how to merge religion and politics at a time when the trend in Egypt, especially among the young, appears to be to separate the two.
http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-egypt-nour-20130705,0,5784510.story
No comments:
Post a Comment