My new book is out: The New Spirit of Islamism

The interplay was not based on an aspiration to build an ideological Islamist bloc in the MENA region. Instead, it revolved around the concept of political success and had a strong neoliberal ethos.

When my publisher first presented several options for the book cover, I never imagined I would choose the one you see now. Initially, it seemed more fitting for a chemistry textbook. However, a few days later, I realized that the book I had written may indeed be about chemistry—specifically, the chemistry between three political entities and how ideology is malleable, with a fluid and ever-changing morphology.

The title of my book, "The New Spirit of Islamism," is clearly inspired by Weber’s seminal work "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" and Boltanski and Chiapello’s "The New Spirit of Capitalism." It delves into the diffusion of tactics among three Islamist entities that emerged in the wake of the Arab Uprisings, exploring what this means for the essence of Islamism.

As with all research, mine began with genuine curiosity: What was the bond between Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB)? What was the connection bet…