and society’s problems, particularly poverty and the lack of
political participation, can be solved by adopting Islamic law as
the law of the land and substituting religious for secular insti-
tutions at most levels. A wide range of Islamist opinions and
organizations exist in Egypt, but their fundamental message
is that the current government is politically illegitimate, too
pro-Western, too accommodating to Israel, and not sufficiently
Islamic, and therefore should be replaced.
The oldest and largest of the estimated 30 to 60 Islamist
movements in Egypt is the aforementioned Muslim Brother-
hood, founded in 1928.