Islamist Gains in Egypt’s Elections While Women Protest

In a paper entitled Salafis and Sufis in Egypt, which was released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Jonathon Brown reviews Egypt’s latest election and the gains made by a number of Islamist parties- particularly the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi movement. Brown notes that Egypt’s elections did not just feature the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) but a variety of Islamic parties including two Sufi parties, MB splinter groups, and Salafis. Brown also notes that “Anxiety over Islamist victories and the emergence of the Salafis is clear in Egypt and in the United States.” Brown warns that any “approach will most likely prove unwise” which seeks to marginalize these newly and democratically elected Islamists.

In Cairo on Tuesday, in what historians are calling “the biggest women’s demonstration in modern Egyptian history” thousands of Egyptian women took the streets to protest military rule and protesting the military’s treatment of peaceful women protesters- many of whom were beaten, kicked, or even stripped of their clothes. It also must be noted that the spectrum of Egyptian represented in the march was diverse and “hardly dominated by secular liberals.” In reaction to the march, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) offered an apology stating that the SCAF “expresses its utmost sorrow for the great women of Egypt, for the violations that took place during the recent events.”