The politics of religion is more complex than the Salafis thought when they jumped into the ring last year, notes Khalil Al-Anani "Together on the road to Paradise", you are told at the website of Al-Daawa Al-Salafiya, or the Salafist Calling, the progenitor and backer of the Nour Party. The reality is something else. As you approach the headquarters of the Salafist Calling in Alexandria, signs of conflict, not heavenly harmony, receive you. The grinding crisis that is raging within the corridors of the Nour Party says a lot about the ongoing changes in the Salafist scene in the country. The Nour Party is caught up in battle between two rival fronts, a battle that may rip it apart. For all their heaven-aspiring propaganda, when it comes to politics the Salafis act like everyone else, with jealousy and intrigue. Since the 25 January Revolution, the Salafist movement has been thrown into turbulent waters. What used to work like magic in the good old days, when the movement was little more than a matrix of loosely associated groups, is no longer working when it has morphed into a party aspiring for cohesion. Those in the know would have told you that the implosion of the Nour Party was only a matter of time. For the past few months, there has been a silent struggle brewing between party leaders over two matters: internal organisation and liaison with the mother organisation, the Salafist Calling. A lot of members, including former parliamentarians, have reservations about the way the party is run and the manner in which the members and leaders are selected. The Nour Party has carried out in-house tests for its members in order to promote them to positions of responsibility, but the results of these tests caused uproar. Some members, displeased with the results, decided to resign. Others mutinied. Another point of contention is the connection between the Nour Party and its primogenitor, the Salafist Calling. Some members believe in close links between the two, while others counsel independence. The first group, which wants the Nour to remain beholden to the Salafist Calling, include Yasser Burhami, Abdel-Moneim Al-Shahhat, and the rest of the Alexandria Group. Nour parliamentarian Ashraf Thabet, Nour Party secretary Galal Al-Morrah and Constituent Committee member Younis Makhioun all want the bonds with the Salafist Calling to remain tight. Another group which wants to distance the party from the Salafist Calling include party leader Emad Abdel-Ghafour, Mohamed Nour and Yusri Hammad. Before the revolution, the Salafist current was little more than static groups of individuals and groups that scorned and sometimes banned participation in political life. After the revolution, political Salafism has become a main player in formulating the Egyptian political scene. But the last 20 months show that the Salafis are not as united as they seem to outsiders. They may share doctrinal similarities, but they are far from harmonious. The difficulties the Salafis are having in enforcing organisational or ideological discipline explains why their internal disputes surfaced with such force. It may be useful here to remember how the Nour Party came into being to start with. The party, which has followers in various areas and governorates, is made up of isolated groups that have nothing in common except their belief in the Salafist puritan ideals. According to some of the Salafi leaders I met in Cairo in March and April, the decision to form the party was taken hastily and without much preparation. It was a mere response to the revolutionary tidal wave that enticed many to venture into politics. In order to form the party, the organisers scouted for prospective members in various governments, recruiting those who believed in the Salafist Calling without pausing to think about their qualifications or political skills. This may explain the embarrassing moments in which Nour deputies experienced from this moment on, due to their failure to understand the party's political programme or communicate with the leaders. The leaders of the Salafist Calling thought that having a party is a mere administrative procedure that requires little more than goodwill. Then the party began selecting its candidates, and got immediately into trouble. No standards were set for the qualifications of the prospective candidates. Instead, they were selected on the basis of reputation and connections. It is remarkable that the divisions within the Nour Party are all of a mundane character -- about how to run the party, what kind of ties it should have with the Salafist Calling, and who are its leaders. It is just as remarkable that the conflict within the Nour Party emerged only after its leader, Emad Abdel-Ghafour, was appointed assistant to the president. This was the argument Ashraf Thabet and his supporters made when they decided to dismiss Abdel-Ghafour. Meanwhile, questions were raised about the connection between both Thabet and Burhami with the former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik. Some say that the two made a deal with Shafik, behind the back of Abdel-Ghafour, to undermine the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. Politics, rather than religious ideology, is now the main concern of Salafi leaders. They are, no doubt, coming to the realisation that survival in politics is not for the most pious, but for the fittest. During the current power struggle, none of the adversaries cited Sharia. What they cited, and what they interpreted in competing ways to bolster their cause, was the party's bylaws. Sometimes, the adversaries took the fight to the newspapers and the televisions, a move that undermines the party's popularity and prospects in the next elections. The Nour Party's crisis shows that preaching and party work are not always compatible and must be kept apart. Unless the Salafis do that, they risk undermining both their religious and political objectives. Still, the relation between the Nour Party and the Salafist Calling remains intimate, with no real political or administrative boundaries between the two. It is interesting to note that Thabet, Makhioun and Al-Morrah are all senior members of both the party and the Salafist Calling. And, in the current strife within the Nour Party, senior members of the Salafist Calling have been divided. Certain key members of the Salafist Calling, including Ahmed Farid and possibly Mohamed Al-Moqaddim and Said Abdel-Azim, support Abdel-Ghafour, while others, led by Burhami, back the Thabet front. The current strife is likely to affect the future course of the Nour Party. More importantly, it has ushered in the end of the Salafist utopia. The writer is a researcher at School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University.
