The emergence of political Islam in the Arab world: Comparative studies of Algeria and Jordan

The Arab world has recently witnessed the emergence of Political Islam, a movement seeking to establish "Islamic" states. Political Islam arose from an ideological vacuum in the Arab world that was a consequence of the Arab defeat in the 1967 War and the resulting collapse of Nasser's "Arab Nationalist" philosophy. In subsequent years, this movement has posed both a philosophical and political challenge to secular Arab regimes and succeeded in altering the political landscape of the Middle East. This thesis provides a comparative analysis of two Arab states, Algeria and Jordan, in order to examine the factors that led to the emergence of Islamic groups as political alternatives in those states. The study will show that Islamic groups in both countries emerged as political forces primarily as a result of, and in reaction to, the internal political and economic decisions of the ruling regimes of each state.