Angry at Massacre, Key al-Nour Party Withdraws Support for Junta

Islamist Party Was Driving Force in New PM's Appointment

If the ousted Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) was Egypt’s consensus number one after last year’s elections, the Salafist al-Nour movement was the number two, coming up with solid showings in both parliamentary votes.

hat made al-Nour a huge power in the post-coup situation, as the Egyptian military was desperate to keep them on board with the coup, and even ditched Mohamed ElBaradei as prime minister because al-Nour objected, selecting a somewhat more palatable option instead.

But after today’s massacre there’s no keeping them on board, and al-Nour has announced that it is withdrawing support from the junta, and will not support the “roadmap” plan.

Losing al-Nour might make the junta more palatable to the West, as it will have lost all support from all Islamist factions at this point, but internally the loss weakens their position markedly, and sets them up against influential clerics who are growing less contented with the junta as time passes.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.