The Management of Difference in Islam: Fiqh Al Khilaf and the Limits of Citizenship and Democratization for Salafi Movements in Egypt

Studying political parties with religious background from a pure political science perspective dealt with such parties as power-seeking entities, thus, they are willing to change their discourse and to offer concessions with regard to their religious positions for the sake of securing votes. However, this was not the case all the time where some of these parties proved to put more weight on social change and da’wa from their own religious point of view over political gains. In addition, the structure of the religious political parties may reflect the religious beliefs of the party leaders and members rather than match the structure of the political party in the field of comparative politics.

This paper argues that Islamist religious parties’ policy choices and actions will be influenced by their technical interpretations to the religious tenets in ways that may support processes of autocratization or that they may be autocratic if they come to power. This paper will discuss the concept of Fiqh el Khilaf (jurisprudence on managing difference) and Al Wala’ wel Baraa’ (Loyalty and disavowal) from the point of view of Al Da’awa Al Salafiyya and its political arm Al Nur party and how this was reflected on their understanding of citizenship, democracy and on the position of this religious political actor on other social groups and on the state.