Jamaat-i-Islami, a hard-line Islamist party, Saturday afternoon announced a boycott of the Karachi polls in protest against election irregularities.

WSJ: Karachi Beset by Political Strife

The hard-line Islamist political parties that backed putting Islamic law into the constitution and championed local Shariah laws are slipping in popularity, too.

WSJ: Indonesia Polls Show Hard-Line Islamists Losing Ground

In one of the most progressive countries in this region, left-wing and liberal groups are also worried about the rising influence of more hard-line Islamist Salafist groups.

BBC: Tunisians' frustrations, two years on

In the deadlier of the two attacks, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives near a vehicle carrying a candidate from a hard-line Islamist party, killing 12 people and wounding 35, police officer Haleem Khan said.

WSJ: Bombs Kill 17 in Pakistan

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) A suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives near a vehicle carrying a candidate from a hard-line Islamist party in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 12 people in the second attack on the party in as many days, police said.

NPR: Suicide Attack On Candidate Kills 12 In Pakistan

Idris has pointedly excluded some extremists from the coalition, including Al Nusra and another collection of hard-line Islamist groups, the Syrian Islamic Front. (Al Nusra, for its part, never asked to join up.) But, according to American officials and nongovernmental groups that work in the region, the overwhelming majority of the rebels are fighting for an Islamic republic.

NEWYORKER: The Thin Red Line