There is a widespread assumption that Islamist opposition parties in the Middle East are seeking to govern at the earliest opportunity. But that idea is challenged by Shadi Hamid of Brookings in an interesting – and, I think, important – article headed "Arab Islamist parties: losing on purpose?"

Looking in some detail at past elections in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Yemen, Hamid argues that Islamist parties "go out of their way to avoid increasing their share of parliamentary seats, even when doing so would appear both possible and in their self-interest".

The assumption that they are out to grab political power seems to be a result of perceiving them in similar terms to Marxist parties (along with the tendency, especially in the US, to treat the "Islamist threat" as a straightforward replacement for the "Communist threat"). This, however, is based on a misunderstanding of their main goal, which is to Islamise society.
Hamid points out that whereas socialist parties needed political power in order to make society "socialist", Islamist parties can still make society "Islamic" even if they lose elections.

Merely by contesting elections, they can shape the public discourse and often push governments into adopting more "Islamic" policies than would otherwise have been the case. (In this way, it might be argued, they also keep their moral virtue intact by not getting involved in the messy business of actually governing.)

Islamist parties, Hamid notes, usually form part of a broader social/religious movement which acts as a state-within-a-state by providing services that the government fails to provide. Decisions about when and where to contest elections my thus be influenced by non-electoral considerations.

Although Islamist parties have become increasingly willing to engage in electoral politics, the way they do so, Hamid argues, is not conducive to the development of democracy:

"If the international community is in fact interested in supporting Arab democracy (including alternation of power), it would do well to persuade Islamist groups that they can and should try to win a larger share of parliamentary seats. 

"As long as Islamist parties deliberately lose elections, democratic transitions in the Arab world will remain out of reach ...

"Islamist groups are hesitant to mobilise against regimes out of fear of repression. The international community can address this fear in two ways: by encouraging cross-ideological coalitions and by clearly showing that it supports the right of these groups to participate in the political process."