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In Year Four of Arab Awakening, Islamists Are Less Attractive

(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) Marwan Muasher - The Arab uprisings transformed Islamist movements - mostly offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood - from opposition groups into major political forces in most countries undergoing transitions. Yet over the past few years, Islamists have lost their "holiness" in the Arab world. Their once-popular slogan, "Islam is the solution," is no longer attractive to wide sectors of the population. There has been a significant drop in public support for Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia. The same Egyptians who voted for Islamists demonstrated in unprecedented numbers against them in the short course of one year, confirming that the Arab street judges the forces in power by their performance, not their ideology. The writer, a former Jordanian Ambassador to Israel and the U.S., is Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment.
2013-12-15 00:00:00
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