ABSTRACT
For a century, political Islam has featured on the political map of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and in terms of its impact and role has left a strong impression on the landscape of the MENA Muslim states. Many of political Islam’s encounters with ruling regimes have been violent, and as such, Islamists had, until the 2010s, tended to cut a beleaguered image on the mind of citizens. To some extent, in what Iranian leaders called the ‘Islamic awakening’ in the Arab region, political Islam did feature, and at critical junctures in Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists did enter the political arena in a bid for power. The authors trace the rise and impact of Islamist activism at state and substate levels in an effort to show the significant political and security impact political Islam and its jihadi derivatives have had on the MENA region.
