Growing religiosity is prevalent in Egypt , and extremism and anti-Americanism have also been on the rise in recent years (see WAR Report). The Muslim Brotherhood may be able to attribute a portion of its parliamentary victories to these social trends. The hostile position of the Muslim Brotherhood toward Israel and its chilly stance toward western countries is also likely to appeal to the average Egyptian, even those who do not want to see the implementation of the Sharia legal system.

However, there may be other reasons why Brotherhood parliamentarians were elected in such strength. The Brotherhood gained popularity with Egyptians who feel like the Brotherhood tackles street level problems that members of the government, aloof in their gated mansions, ignore, as they pander to Egypt?s tiny elite and foreign governments. It is this attention to the average people of Egypt?s cities, especially Cairo and its surrounding areas, that may be responsible for its popular success. Tired of the corrupt, self-serving members of post-Nasser regimes, Egyptians likely have more trust in men who claim to be motivated not by desire for money and power but by Islam?s mandates for members of society to care for one another, especially the poor, and erect a more righteous, egalitarian system of laws rather than the current Egyptian laws, especially economic and business laws, which serves the wealthy at the expense of the rest of society. Hamas?s show of strength in municipal elections in the Palestinian Territories were thought to be at least partially attributable to the same kind of dynamic in which the Islamists are viewed as uncorrupt or less corrupt because their motivations are different, and they provide services to sectors of society ignored by secular government.