It was only in the late 1980s and the 1990s that Hamas was able to successfully challenge the dominance of the PLO in Palestine. Yet it was not a foregone conclusion that Islamists would occupy the vacuum created by the collapse of secular nationalism. If there was a political alternative to the left capable of leading working-class struggles, it was the various Communist Parties (CPs) in the region.

XREF: Connects to broader questions about why leftist/communist movements declined relative to Islamist movements across the Middle East in the post-Cold War period.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 333