Scrap the notion that the main supporters of Islamist parties are poor and disenfranchised — it’s the middle class, University of New South Wales researchers argue. The researchers say the middle class supports Islamists “due in large part to neoliberal economic policies.” Using survey and electoral data from Tunisia specifically, the researchers show that “belonging to the middle class and living in a rich district together affect the decision to vote for the religious party more than actually being religious.” They conclude that “more about political Islam and the development of democracies in the Muslim world” would be learnt if “we study these phenomena within the same framework we study political competition in the West.”