Islamic Democrat Discourse in Modern Egypt; from January 2011 Uprising to 2016

Document Type : Science - Research (Regional Studies)

Authors

1 Faculty member of Imam Sadiq University

2 Ph.D. Student in Political Sociolog of Islamic Revolution at Shahed University

Abstract

The 2011 uprising in Egypt paved the way for the formation or growth of discourses in that country, each trying to giving prominence to itself and marginalizing their opponents, thus hegemonizing its own discourse system so that they could provide meaning for the opponents' floating  discourse signifiers within their own discourse framework and create a new identity. Among these discourses that could benefit from its hegemony, though temporarily, and imprint its name on the first official election in modern Egypt, was the "Islamic Democrat Discourse". The rise and fall of this discourse brings a question about the discourse logic and identifying signifiers, principles and indicators of Islamic Democrat Discourse in Egypt, and about those political parties and groups which represent it. One could deduce that the existing discourse conflicts and inability of each to establish itself and the absence of any groundwork for their expansion, including that of the authoritative Islamic, secular democrat, and authoritative secular discourses, can lead to a certain uproar in the society for a long time. This article's method is Laclau and Mouffe discourse analysis. The results show that those groups, like Ikhvan-al Moslemin, which were defined under the Islamic Democrat discourse and offered a new interpretation of political Islam, could rise to power in post-Mubarak era for some time, but their failure in providing identity for the floating signifiers in their discourse and the lack of this latter's comprehensiveness, resulted in their collapse.

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Volume 12, Issue 1 - Serial Number 23
ESSAY
April 2016
Pages 99-128
  • Receive Date: 22 February 2016
  • Revise Date: 08 May 2016
  • Accept Date: 22 June 2016