Book Reviews 

The Islamic Movement in Egypt: 

Perceptions of International Relations 

1967-81 

By Walid M. Abdelnasser. London: Kegan Paul Inter­

national, 1994, 308 pp. 

The author of this book is a member of the Egyptian diplomatic service 
with a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva. This study employs carefully 
defined concepts, the most important one being Islamism as the politiciza­
tion of Islamic symbols. In addition, however, he defines the boundary 
between the internal world of perceptions and the external world that is 
being perceived as the ummah. In so doing, the author logically raises the 
question of the universalism of Islam and the particularism of Egyptian 
nationalist foreign policy perceptions. It is this carefulness that allows the 
author to tell the story of Islamic ideological perceptions objectively and 
without raising controversies of theological interpretation. 

The book begins with a historical treatment of the Islamic perception 
of international relations from the foreign policy of the Prophet Muham­
mad to the formulations of al-Afghani, 'Abduh, and Ri<;ia. He includes in 
this survey the organizational development and points of view of the al­
lkhwan al-Muslimm, the al-Jama'at al-Isla.m1yah, and the clandestine 
organizations, (e.g., Shabab Mul:tammad, al-Takfir wa al-Hijrah, and al­
Jihad). He then goes on to identify the positions of these organizations on 
the internal issues of the Muslim world, e.g., the Iranian revolution, the 
Muslim world in general, and the attitude toward particular Muslim coun­
tries. On the question of the Iranian revolution, the Ikhwan initially sup­
ported it but, as the Iranians attacked it and its leader, al-Tilmasiin1, this 
support cooled. The Ikhwan had less concern with the Shi'ism of the 
Iranian revolution than did the remaining more extreme groups in Egypt. 
These supported the revolution but had doubts about its Shi'ism. 

The "external" issue of the Israeli Zionist threat also provides evidence 
of relative moderation by the lkhwan. It initially opposed the Egyptian­
Israeli peace but then tacitly came to accept it. It also was totally opposed 
to the normalization of relations with Israel. As the author notes, this posi­
tion was very much in conformity with Egyptian public sentiment. The 
other groups, on the other hand, remained adamantly opposed. 

In general, the Egyptian Muslim organizational point of view of 
foreign policy naturally responded to international forces. Thus, they 
were uniformly opposed to communism and especially the Soviet invasion 



572 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 13:4 

of Afghanistan. The Egyptian mujahidin who went to Afghanistan to fight 
resembled those who went to fight in Palestine in 1936-39 and 1948-49. 
With corrununism having passed from the scene, the attention of those 
groups is now focused upon the peace process and the United States. One 
conclusion of the author is that the Ikhwan is adjusting and accorrunodat­
ing to the peace process while the other more radical groups do not have 
Israel as a primary concern; rather, they challenge the Muslim credentials 
of their political leadership. In other words, peace with Israel is not as divi­
sive an issue as one might think. 

Titis book is an important scholarly contribution both substantively and 
also in terms of its prodigious research in (primarily) Arabic sources. An 
important question largely undeveloped is that of the relationship of 
Egyptian foreign policy objectives to those of Islamism. Implicitly, it seems 
that it can be argued that Egypt's policy coincides with both the process of 
furthering Egyptian nationalism and Arab nationalism and the reinforce­
ment of Islamism. In other words, is Egypt's effort at regional hegemony, 
the seeking of international rents (e.g., foreign economic assistance, work­
er remittances), and national security compatible with Islamism or not? 

Finally, the author has been ill served by a publisher who has failed to 
edit the book properly; sentence structures are faulty and arguments are 
repeated. As an illustration, the content of the historical section is repeated 
in the latter chapters. In addition, the transliteration of Arabic words is idio­
syncratic, e.g., Shikh for Shaykh (p. 63) and Shi'y for Shi'i (p. 116). 

Louis J. Cantori 
Professor of Political Science 

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (U.M.B.C.) 
President, American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies