Salafi Political Socialisation in Post-Arab Spring Egypt and Tunisia Helen Murphey

Title: Salafi Political Socialisation in Post-Arab Spring Egypt and Tunisia
Presenter: Dr Helen Murphey

The formation and ascent of Salafi political parties and movements in the wake of the Arab Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt was, at first glance, surprising to observers. While Salafism — a conservative revivalist movement seeking to emulate the authenticity of the first three generations of Muslims — has been heavily researched over the past decades, political Salafis — and particularly Salafis who sought to enter institutional politics — had been generally been considered a minor trend in research on the ideological milieu. After the Arab Uprisings, however, some Salafi political movements swiftly rose in influence and at times, gained considerable popular support. This research explores the types of political actions that Salafis pursued and the multifaceted impacts that this participation initiated. It finds that within the movement, different political actors began to socialise in radically diverging ways. At the same time, this research analyses how Salafis' entry into formal politics complicated their relationships with more mainstream Islamist and non-Islamist political actors, with important implications for the volatile post-revolutionary democratic politics of Tunisia and Egypt.