Paper short abstract:

This paper delves into what anthropological inquiries into the everyday practice and theory of Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists can tell us about contemporary Leftist understandings of “Islamism” in light of calls to decolonize academia and an age marred by contested politics.

Paper long abstract:

Under the banner of “fighting Islamism” the mainstream Western narrative legitimized both the imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the surveillance of Muslim communities. Hereby, in a colonial fashion, knowledge production in Western academia, including anthropology, has also played its part.

In academic and activist circles alike the question of the relationship of Leftists to “Islamists”, has been heatedly debated. The organization of Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists (ERS), which grew in popularity during the 2011 Revolution and has been severely hit by state repressions since the 2013 military coup, has taken a unique and not uncontroversial stance. While both the state narrative and many Leftists, often in a “postcolonial framework”, have labeled diverse “Islamist” movements as “fascists”, the ERS have popularized the tactic “with the state never, with the Islamists sometimes”.

In their multifaceted interactions with the Muslim Brotherhood, members of the organization have navigated how to deal with those who they are actually politically opposed to in their daily modes of practice. Based on anthropological research spanning 17 months with members of the ERS in exile in the global north and in the political underground, I delve into what anthropological inquiries into the practice and theory of ERS can say about contemporary Leftist understandings of “Islamism” in light of calls to decolonize academia and an age marred by contested politics. I ask what the interactions by ERS, as social actors from the global south, tell us about activism from below fighting for a more just world.