Source: Stratfor

By Kamran Bokhari
Vice President of Middle Eastern & South Asian Affairs

(“Salafism and Arab Democratizationis republished with permission of Stratfor.”)

The outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011 brought significant attention to groups — known as Islamists — seeking to establish Islamic states in countries once ruled by secular autocrats. The bulk of this attention went to already established political groups such as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which caused consternation in the West when its Freedom and Justice Party won control of both Egypt’s parliament and its presidency.