| Summary/Abstract |
Using the case study of Egypt’s largest Salafi movement, the Alexandrian Da‘wa Salafiyya and its party al-Nur, this article revisits Wiktorowicz’s typology which identified three dominant factions within Salafism: purists, politicos, and jihadis (2006). Based on this Egyptian case study, I show that there is no clear boundary between the purists and the politicos. This article also makes the case for an additional category: voluntary co-optation. Instead of fitting into immutable categories, Da‘wa Salafiyya leaders move between religious and political identities depending on what they deem to be the most effective strategy for political survival. Egyptian Salafis have adopted three different strategies to ensure their political survival since the movement’s inception: quietism under Sadat and Mubarak, political activism following the 2011 Revolution, and finally co-optation by the military regime since 2013. Wiktorowicz’s categories are best interpreted as time-bounded pragmatic political strategies rather than finite and static identities.
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