The Many Faces of Political Islam – From Moderate to Extreme

Posted: April 19th, 2017

By H.A. Hellyer

Dr H.A. Hellyer is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the RH Centre for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council in DC and Associate Fellow in International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London. An adjunct professor at the Centre for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilisation, at the Universiti Teknologi in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he was previously as nonresident Fellow at the Centre for Middle East Policy at Brookings, and Research Associate at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. Dr Hellyer also served as Deputy Convenor of the UK Government's Taskforce for the 2005 London bombings, and as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's first Economic and Social Research Council Fellow as part of the Islam and Counter-Terrorism teams.

Usage of the term political Islam has become common in recent years as Islamist movements vie for influence in a changing Middle East. However, the expression means very different things to different people It is often used to refer to a wide spectrum of Islamist groups, from the Muslim Brotherhood to far more radical groups such as ISIS. The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with Dr. H.A. Hellyer, nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and the Royal United Services Institute in London, and author of “A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt,” about the future of politics and religion in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Cipher Brief: How do you define political Islam?

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