After decades of staying out of politics, Alexandria-based Salafis have decided to form their own political party in hopes of influencing the shape of Egypt’s new political order.
In recent weeks, a group of Salafi youth has been hammering out the details and the structure of the would-be Nour (meaning light) Party in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, long a stronghold for Salafis, literalist Muslims who are influenced by Saudi clerics.
According to founding leader Yasser Metwalli, the Nour Party has already attracted more than 5000 founding members, thereby securing the quorum required to apply for a party license.
“It’s Salafi party that groups together Salafi youths, but Salafi clerics have nothing to do with the party,” said Metwalli, 38.
Nour Party members have to convince the Political Parties Affairs Committee that their party is not formed on a religious, gender, class or sectarian bases – possibly a tall order for an ultraconservative religious movement.
“The party is not religious, but it has a religious frame of reference,” Metwalli told Al-Masry Al-Youm, echoing a catchphrase used by most Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which seek to engage in partisan politics in post-Mubarak Egypt.
But unlike other Ismalist groups, the Nour Party’s “frame of reference” may keep it from fully embracing democracy.
“We talk about democracy as long as it does not contradict Islamic sharia,” Metwalli said. “We will oppose anything that contradicts Islamic sharia, even if it is accepted by the majority.”
The Nour Party stems from the Salafi Da’wa, one of the most popular Salafi trends in today’s Egypt, which was established by students at Alexandria University in the 1970s. Although Salafism is more a school of thought than a hierarchical organization, the Salafi Da’wa stands as one of the best-organized Salafi entities in Egypt.
Its preachers have propagated their message through mosque lessons, conferences, youth activities and social services. For decades, the movement remained aloof from politics and even went as far as denouncing political participation. That has changed since Mubarak’s ouster on 11 February.
Salafis, like other ideological movements, now seek to have their voice heard. “The size of the Salafi population makes it necessary for Salafis to have a political presence,” Metwalli said. “They have to be part of the decision making process in Egypt.”
Ahmed Zaghloul Shalata, author of "Salafi Trends in Egypt" tries to examine whether the Nour Party attests to a drastic change of heart on the part of the Salafi Da’wa.
“The Salafi Da’wa does not renounce political participation per se,” he said. “It refuses to engage in politics under an un-Islamic regime because such participation would require them to make religious concessions. That un-Islamic regime was represented by Mubarak’s regime and it is no longer there.”
In the meantime, Shalata questions Metawalli’s claim that the party will be independent of the Salafi Da’wa preachers.
“It is hard to have full separation between proselytizing and political activities,” said Shalata. “There is a lot in common between the two. They say that just to send assuring signals to the society and other political factions.”
The party attests to a Salafi desire to engage in politics in order to establish an Islamic state after the fall of Mubarak, added Shalata.
Yet, Salafis will have to pay a price.
“The participation of Salafis in politics can be advantageous,” said Samer Soliman, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo and a founding member of the liberal Egyptian Social Democratic Party. “It can put them under pressure to change and develop their ideas.”
To achieve this end, the state should impose certain regulations that would force Islamists to respect democracy and relinquish “physical as well as verbal violence” against other factions that do not subscribe to the same Islamic paradigm, Soliman said.
“If you totally isolate Islamists or let them engage in politics without any regulations, this can be catastrophic,” said Soliman.
Since the fall of Mubarak, the political spectrum has become sharply divided between secularists and Islamists. On one hand, liberal parties are emerging to curb Islamist might, which they allege could thwart the transition to democracy. On the other hand, Islamists are becoming more vocal about the necessity to protect the Islamic nature of the Egyptian state.
In recent weeks, this divide was exacerbated after Salafi factions allegedly perpetrated violent acts against Copts in several governorates.
“This polarization is quite problematic, but it will only last during the transitional period,” said Soliman, adding that eventually, a “moderate civil trend” will become mainstream.
On the Islamist front, so far, only the Muslim Brotherhood has filed all required documents to the Political Parties Affairs Committee to obtain official status for its Freedom and Justice Party.
While they may both be motivated by an “Islamic frame of reference,” there are sure to be serious differences between the Nour Party and the Brotherhood’s, according to Metwalli.
“We will not give up the fundamentals of religion to please people or society,” he said. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafi party would not condone the ascendancy of women or Copts to the presidency, according to Metwalli.
“These are fundamentals that we cannot give up,” added Metwalli. “Being civilized does not mean giving up the Muslim identity, and indulging in secularism under the pretext of achieving renaissance. Egypt will remain a Muslim state, and I don’t mean a religious state.”
The Nour Party subscribes to a fundamentalist doctrine according to which only Muslim males are eligible for the presidency. The Muslim Brotherhood’s initial party platform, released in 2007, adopted the same position. But the group subsequently lifted the ban on women and Copts running for the presidency in its final platform.
To Soliman, Salafi “discrimination” against women and Copts should be enough to deny the party official status. “Banning someone from running for the presidency means perceiving him as a second-class citizen,” said Soliman.
If accepted, the Nour Party will field parliamentary candidates in the election slated for September. The candidates will promote a development-oriented platform that could help Egypt achieve a “renaissance” and restore its leading position in the region, according to Metwalli.
However, the party will not run a presidential candidate. “We never thought of holding the highest power structure or the presidency. It is all about political participation so that we do not get marginalized,” Metwalli said, seeking to diffuse fears of an Islamist plot to hijack all state institutions.
At press time, party leaders were ready to apply for the license. But Shalata says it is too early for Salafis to engage in elections.
“It is impossible for the Nour Party, in case it comes into existence, to really compete in the parliamentary elections. Salafis do not have political cadres and their political thought is quite limited. It has been a purely proselytizing group,” said Shalata.
Instead, the Salafis will have to fall back on a less religiously conservative group to carry the mantle of political Islam, according to Shalata. “The Salafi groups will most likely support Muslim Brotherhood candidates in the elections as they will constitute representatives of Islamic currents in the race,” he said.
