As Islamists – Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists – stepped in the world of politics after the January 25 revolution, Egypt is overwhelmed with a religious face that is a far cry from the country’s civil features it has always been used to since the turn of the 19th century, writes Dr. Mu’taz Salāmah in an opinion article in al-Ahrām.

There are four likely scenarios on the future of the Muslim Brotherhood’s relationship with the civil state if they won the presidency.

The first one could be a premature exit by the group in new general elections, which could in turn backfire on the historic position of the Brotherhood’s so-called Islamic renaissance project.

The second one could be a coup against the Brotherhood, which is still a possibility in the Egyptian case, not out of plots by the military establishment or some of its loyalists but rather out of wrong tactics by the group itself.

The third one could be the Brotherhood’s coup against the state, which is the opposite number of the previous scenario. This means that the Brotherhood would linger in power for the next few years and that they would work on enhancing their presence in it and their seizure of the state institutions.

The fourth scenario might be a coup within the Brotherhood itself, like, for instance, the revolt by a reformist camp within the group that might save it from its historical insistence on antiquated ideologies. [Mu’taz Salāmah, al-Ahrām, April 13, p. 30] Read original text in Arabic