Al-Ahram Weekly
"Together on the road to Paradise", you are told at the website of
Al-Daawa Al-Salafiya, or the Salafist Calling, the progenitor and backer
of the Nour Party.
The reality is something
else. As you approach the headquarters of the Salafist Calling in
Alexandria, signs of conflict, not heavenly harmony, receive you.
The grinding crisis that
is raging within the corridors of the Nour Party says a lot about the
ongoing changes in the Salafist scene in the country.
For all their
heaven-aspiring propaganda, when it comes to politics the Salafis act
like everyone else, with jealousy and intrigue.
Since the 25 January
Revolution, the Salafist movement has been thrown into turbulent waters.
What used to work like magic in the good old days, when the movement
was little more than a matrix of loosely associated groups, is no longer
working when it has morphed into a party aspiring for cohesion.
Those in the know would
have told you that the implosion of the Nour Party was only a matter of
time. For the past few months, there has been a silent struggle brewing
between party leaders over two matters: internal organisation and
liaison with the mother organisation, the Salafist Calling.
A lot of members,
including former parliamentarians, have reservations about the way the
party is run and the manner in which the members and leaders are
selected.
The Nour Party has
carried out in-house tests for its members in order to promote them to
positions of responsibility, but the results of these tests caused
uproar. Some members, displeased with the results, decided to resign.
Others mutinied.
Another point of
contention is the connection between the Nour Party and its
primogenitor, the Salafist Calling. Some members believe in close links
between the two, while others counsel independence.
The first group, which
wants the Nour to remain beholden to the Salafist Calling, include
Yasser Burhami, Abdel-Moneim Al-Shahhat, and the rest of the Alexandria
Group. Nour parliamentarian Ashraf Thabet, Nour Party secretary Galal
Al-Morrah and Constituent Committee member Younis Makhioun all want the
bonds with the Salafist Calling to remain tight.
Another group which
wants to distance the party from the Salafist Calling include party
leader Emad Abdel-Ghafour, Mohamed Nour and Yusri Hammad.
Before the revolution,
the Salafist current was little more than static groups of individuals
and groups that scorned and sometimes banned participation in political
life.
After the revolution,
political Salafism has become a main player in formulating the Egyptian
political scene. But the last 20 months show that the Salafis are not as
united as they seem to outsiders. They may share doctrinal
similarities, but they are far from harmonious.
The difficulties the
Salafis are having in enforcing organisational or ideological discipline
explains why their internal disputes surfaced with such force.
It may be useful here to
remember how the Nour Party came into being to start with. The party,
which has followers in various areas and governorates, is made up of
isolated groups that have nothing in common except their belief in the
Salafist puritan ideals.
According to some of the
Salafi leaders I met in Cairo in March and April, the decision to form
the party was taken hastily and without much preparation. It was a mere
response to the revolutionary tidal wave that enticed many to venture
into politics.
In order to form the
party, the organisers scouted for prospective members in various
governments, recruiting those who believed in the Salafist Calling
without pausing to think about their qualifications or political skills.
This may explain the
embarrassing moments in which Nour deputies experienced from this moment
on, due to their failure to understand the party's political programme
or communicate with the leaders.
The leaders of the
Salafist Calling thought that having a party is a mere administrative
procedure that requires little more than goodwill. Then the party began
selecting its candidates, and got immediately into trouble. No standards
were set for the qualifications of the prospective candidates. Instead,
they were selected on the basis of reputation and connections.
It is remarkable that
the divisions within the Nour Party are all of a mundane character --
about how to run the party, what kind of ties it should have with the
Salafist Calling, and who are its leaders.
It is just as remarkable
that the conflict within the Nour Party emerged only after its leader,
Emad Abdel-Ghafour, was appointed assistant to the president. This was
the argument Ashraf Thabet and his supporters made when they decided to
dismiss Abdel-Ghafour.
Meanwhile, questions
were raised about the connection between both Thabet and Burhami with
the former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik. Some say that the two
made a deal with Shafik, behind the back of Abdel-Ghafour, to undermine
the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Politics, rather than
religious ideology, is now the main concern of Salafi leaders. They are,
no doubt, coming to the realisation that survival in politics is not
for the most pious, but for the fittest.
During the current power
struggle, none of the adversaries cited Sharia. What they cited, and
what they interpreted in competing ways to bolster their cause, was the
party's bylaws.
Sometimes, the
adversaries took the fight to the newspapers and the televisions, a move
that undermines the party's popularity and prospects in the next
elections.
The Nour Party's crisis
shows that preaching and party work are not always compatible and must
be kept apart. Unless the Salafis do that, they risk undermining both
their religious and political objectives.
Still, the relation
between the Nour Party and the Salafist Calling remains intimate, with
no real political or administrative boundaries between the two. It is
interesting to note that Thabet, Makhioun and Al-Morrah are all senior
members of both the party and the Salafist Calling. And, in the current
strife within the Nour Party, senior members of the Salafist Calling
have been divided.
Certain key members of
the Salafist Calling, including Ahmed Farid and possibly Mohamed
Al-Moqaddim and Said Abdel-Azim, support Abdel-Ghafour, while others,
led by Burhami, back the Thabet front.
The current strife is
likely to affect the future course of the Nour Party. More importantly,
it has ushered in the end of the Salafist utopia.
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