Do Muslims vote Islamic?

The electoral success of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party and the likelihood that the Muslim Brotherhood will do well in Egypt’s forthcoming elections has heightened fears in many quarters. Will Islamic parties always dominate such contests in the Middle East?

The electoral success of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, the Justice and Development Party in Turkey and Hamas in Palestine suggest the answer is yes. But looking at a broader data set – that is, the entire range of elections in which Islamic parties have taken part – reveals a different picture.

Most popular

Charles Amos

What my GB News incest row critics fail to understand

Islamic parties have stood for elections in more than 90 elections in more than 20 countries. But as scholars Charles Kurzman and Ijlal Naqvi argue in a fascinating study entitled “Do Muslims Vote Islamic?”, judging by all the elections in the last 40 years, Islamic parties typically receive only a small fraction of the vote.