What the Salafists Want: Egypt Faces a Hardline Islamic Future
It’s a good thing that the visitor is a man. The sheikh doesn’t speak with women. But then again, the reporter is a foreigner, which is also worrisome. There are so many prejudices about Islam in the West, says Sheikh Fawzi al-Sayeed. But perhaps, he adds, this conversation will help to spread the truth.
Sayeed, 70, a serious-looking man with a full gray beard, is wearing sandals, a crochet cap and the traditional Egyptian garment called the Jellabiya. He invites his guest into the Al-Tawheed Mosque. It is 6:30 a.m., and those gathered inside have just completed their morning prayers. Now they are forming a half circle around their sheikh, who has taken a seat on a wooden chair in the middle of the room. The Al-Tawheed Mosque in the northern part of Cairo is a plain-looking building with no ornate columns or other decoration; no unnecessary details to distract the faithful from their devotion to God.
As he does every morning, Sayeed asks his followers to reaffirm their devotion to the “true faith.” He also asks them to film the interview that will follow the sermon with their mobile phones. It’s purely a precaution, says the sheikh. Sayeed, an electrical engineer by trade, is one of Egypt’s best-known Salafist imams. These days, it is not always easy to recognize the friends and the foes of Islam.
Since the Salafist Al-Nour Party, or “Party of Light,” came in second place in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, just behind the Muslim Brotherhood, the world has been looking to Cairo with concern. The two groups captured about 60 percent of those seats assigned on the basis of candidate lists assembled by the parties. One third of the seats are reserved for individual candidates. It is the first phase ofthe 2011-2012 parliamentary elections, with the second round beginning on Wednesday.
The election result confirms a clear trend, namely that wherever free elections have taken place in the Islamic Middle East in recent years, the religious parties have won: in the Gaza Strip in 2006, in Iraq in 2010, and in Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco in 2011.
Shocking Showing
But only in Egypt has such a radical group as the Salafists been able to establish itself as a party. This has serious implications, given that this is the most populous and culturally influential country in the Arab world; the revolutionary pulse that has been beating on Cairo’s Tahrir Square for the last 11 months can be felt as far away as Libya and Syria, Iran and the Gulf states.
The Salafists’ strong showing hasn’t just shocked many Egyptians, but especially the country’s revolutionary youth, liberals and leftists, Coptic Christians and moderate Muslims. It was, after all, the Salafists who had agitated against the Copts and boycotted the revolution, on the grounds that it was infiltrated with “whores and Zionists.” And it was also the Salafists who, until now, had rejected free elections as “un-Islamic.” And now they are coming into power as democrats?
The Al-Nour Party was formed in the spring as a melting pot of various conservative and formerly militant groups. Its members were not exactly known for their democratic ambitions, but rather for their close ties to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since the establishment of the “Party of Light,” more than $100 million (€75 million) in campaign funds have allegedly made their way from the oil-rich, Wahhabite kingdom to the banks of the Nile.
The Salafists’ political ideas are as unadorned as their mosques. They are united by the desire to live their lives in accordance with the example set by the Prophet Muhammad and his companions almost 1,400 years ago. This extends to the Salafists’ rules on clothing and beards, which require a face veil for women and a full beard, generally without a moustache, for men.