ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comparative study of two non-violent extremist Salafist groups, al-Dawa al-Salafiya (The Salafi Call) or al-Nour Party, in Egypt and the Islamic Salafi Alliance (ISA) in Kuwait. The study compares their evolution and political engagement, as well as the effects of the Arab Spring on their performance. The research relies on primary and secondary sources, including interviews and publications in Arabic and English, to investigate the groups. This chapter finds that al-Nour and ISA take similar approaches to the promotion of Islam within their polities, and both have competed with the Muslim Brotherhood. al-Nour and ISA’s alliance with their regimes during the events of the Arab Spring resulted in their loss of potential allies, namely other Islamists and reformers, and their decline in political relevance.
