ABSTRACT
The development of the Islamist movement in Egypt represents a political and ideological struggle between one of the leading states in the Middle East and the most widespread opposition movement in the Muslim world in recent decades. The history of the Islamist groups in Egypt has been one of exclusion from political power due to government policies or particular ideologies or activities. The resort to violence by Islamists as a legitimate means of combating the Egyptian regime has since the 1970s taken on dimensions that constitute a threat to the regime. The general economic context of relations between the state and the Islamists needs to be set against the background of economic liberalization begun during the Sadat period. The limited attempts at a degree of political liberalization on the part of the Sadat and Mubarak regimes has failed to quell the demands of moderate Islamists for more serious recognition or to stop the spread of militant activity.
