Political Islam and the Arab spring: Between the failure in Egypt and the success in Tunisia

• Main Author: Rabaia, I.S.I.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: JA Political science (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/17821/1/All.pdf; http://eprints.um.edu.my/17821/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

By the end of2010, the spark-of the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, by the following year, several Arab countries had been affected by such revolutions in different degrees. However, Tunisia and Egypt signed a special and unique experience by their political and nonviolent transformation in few years after toppling down the former dictators. Unfortunately, such transition ended in Egypt by restoring the military regime, which controlled the country for more than 6 decades, and the Muslim Brotherhood "MB" winners of the first free democratic elections in the Egyptian for presidency and parliament, failed in staying in office under the pressure of army intervention. On the other hand, Alnahda -the local Muslim Brotherhood- still a key player in the political order of Tunisia with an ongoing political transition under democratization roles. In this paper, I am asking about the reasons of such different in the outcomes for the participation ofIslarnist in political transition in both countries, the methodology is basing on comparing the both cases and analysing the structure of MB in both countries from one side, and exploring, in brief, the surrounding political environment from the other side. In general, I am building this paper on the hypothesis of that MB failed in maintaining their power in Egypt due to fundamental differences between them and the Tunisian MB in their political ideology, in addition to the differences in the political context and Army role.