Practicing Islam in Egypt

"For many, the signal event in the history of Islamic activism in Anwar al-Sadat's Egypt is his stunning assassination in October 1981 by the Jihad group, members of which would go on to form al-Qaeda. Other accounts of this period have examined the ways that the Muslim Brotherhood steadily rebuilt their shattered organization around a "Parallel Islamic sector" operating on the margins of state control. These events, however, were only one manifestation of a much deeper and broader trend of Islamic revival that would redefine social norms. Under Sadat, Egyptian society saw a decisive turn in public debate and practice: from calls for the application of Islamic law to the crowded mosques across Egyptian cities to the self-consciously modest dress and pious comportment, Egyptian Muslims increasingly applied Islam to their daily lives"-- Provided by publisher.