From outsiders to kingmakers: a comparative study of political Salafism in Egypt and political Haredism in Israel

ABSTRACT

How and why have fundamentalists, who aim to defend religion and tradition from modernity by advocating a new return to the fundamentals of religious belief and behaviour, become politically successful when one would expect them to remain marginal in their mass appeal given their belief in one true faith, exclusive organisations, limited ideological appeal and strict codes of conduct for their followers? To study this puzzle, this article utilises a cross-religious comparative study looking at how political Salafism in Egypt and political Haredism in Israel both moved from the margins of the political spectrum to its centre despite very different socio-political contexts. Building on literature addressing religious revival in Christian churches in the US, this article hypothesises that fundamentalists gained ground because the state’s ambiguous secularism allowed for the emergence of a ‘religious market,’ in which fundamentalists’ niche appeal allowed them to position themselves as kingmakers.