In an article titled “The Arab Awakening at Two: Facebook to Faith Book,” written on the second anniversary of the successful popular uprising in Tunisia and Egypt (Jan. 28, 2013), I argued why the Islamists in the two countries were able to grab power via the ballots — either alone or in an alliance they control. The post-authoritarian phase saw the emergence of Islamist-dominated or influenced regimes. The same could be said also about Libya, where Islamism was tempered by the strong tribal and regional factors. In Syria, the key most-influential forces in the opposition fighting the regime are different Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, many Salafist currents and different factions of the al-Qaeda family.
That Islamism reached power was no surprise for many reasons. First, it is about being the only organized force with a strong ideological motivation and an iron discipline. Second, it is about the attractiveness of its message and the promises of better life it carries. In fact, this attractiveness stems from the fact that Arab societies are undergoing great inequalities and humiliation and witnessing the re-emergence of religious conservatism and identity revivalism under different religious forms. Third, the Muslim Brotherhood movements have strong financial and organizational capabilities.
