The Rise of Political Islam Can The Turkish Model Be Applied Successfully in Egypt ?

Although the parliamentary elections run in Egypt in December 2011January 2012 indicated that Egypt is witnessing an era of political or democratic transformation, they signified the rise of political Islam to authority; the rise which created a lot of debates and posed a lot of questions about the political and economic future of Egypt. The core of these debates circles around these questions: Would Egypt adopt, literally, a rigid proIslamic type of rule based on the Islamic Sharia (Islamic Code) or would it adopt a moderate model, like that in Turkey, in its political and economic transformation? Pessimists think that Egypt will become another model of Iraq where national strife causes a lot of bloodshed or another model of Iran which gained a global antagonism. Optimists, on the other hand, aspire that Egypt will adopt a moderate proIslamic model as Islam itself is called the religion of moderateness (Din al Aetedal wa al Wasatiya) and they suggest and appreciate that Egypt follows the steps taken by the Turkish party AKP ( Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi), The Justice and Development Party in Turkey. They base their argument on the political and economic development witnessed by Turkey under the rule of the AKP. Moreover, they consider Turkey to be a Muslim but pro-Western and secular state, a “model” or “inspiration” for other Muslim countries. Though the author supports the optimists’ view, he thinks that Egypt faces a lot of barriers that 1 Instructor of International Economics and International Politics at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport. I thank Miss Nadine Fakhry.M. for research help Topics in Middle Eastern and African Economies Vol. 15, No. 1, May 2013 65 could hinder the achievement of these objectives or at least preclude their realization on the short run.