Carnegie Middle East Center
The Islamist political party Ennahda has decided to focus on politics over preaching. This shift has forced it to rebuild its legitimacy on argument rather than religion.
Understanding Algeria’s various Islamist communities—including militant groups, moderate factions, and grassroots movements—offers a window into the country’s uncertain sociopolitical future.
Iraq's leading party from 2003 to 2018, Dawa has lost political relevance and become divided by internal factions. It will struggle to sell its vision of political Islam in Iraq's new climate.
Hurras al-Din is watching what happens to the Islamic State in the hope of recruiting its members on the run.
The Syria-Hezbollah relationship has long been defined by resilience amid shifting power dynamics, and this looks set to continue with the latest developments in Syria’s civil war.
Jihadi violence in Mauritania has peaked and appears to have been contained through a mix of coercion and co-option. Yet the government’s triumphalism should be treated with care; Mauritania remains mired in corruption and poverty.
Egyptian exiles have faced stark difficulties in living abroad and trying to return home. Amid the government's consistent repression, they face painful choices about their future.
Shia and Sunni endowments have gone different ways since Saddam Hussein's fall, and the Iraqi state is poised to take advantage where it can.
The Syrian civil war has reshaped Sunni Islamic identity in the country. As a result, the regime will struggle to use religion to enhance its own power and legitimacy.
Although local clerics have helped the Syrian state reassert control, the regime is centralizing religious authority away from communities. Their future relationship is hard to predict.
Several years after the Arab uprisings, the diverse landscape of Islamist actors continues to shift in different directions, often tailored by and for the existing challenges.
Carnegie scholars explore the transformations that Islamist groups and parties in the region (across national, ethnic, sectarian, and doctrinal divides) are undergoing, by examining both the external factors that impact them, and their internal dynamics and tensions around questions of governance, ideology, and violence.
This project was made possible with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY).
