Islamic political parties are winning elections one after another in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and the question in most observers’ mind is whether Islamic political parties are genuine actors of democratization or whether they aim the creation of an Iran-style Islamic theocracy. Meanwhile, Islamic actors have other immediate worries in mind: will the international community accept their electoral victory, or will this result in a repetition of Algeria 1991, where democracy was sacrificed in the name of secularism. And more so, will they be as successful as the Turkish Justice and Development Party. Answering these questions requires us to take a step back and understand the complexity of Islamic political parties first. Hence, in this paper I ask who “Islamic political parties” are, where they come from, and what they aim and strategize for. These are important questions to ask because many observers assume that Islamic movements tend either to be radicals eschewing party formation, or to be democratically committed because they form Islamic political parties. However, such a divide does not correspond to the realities on the ground: sometimes Islamic movements reject party formation because the political regime is not democratic enough (e.g. Justice and Spirituality Movement in Morocco), and sometimes they form political parties because it is a medium to achieve an Islamic state (e.g. Salafi Al Nour Party in Egypt). Hence, there is a need to understand the origins of Islamic political behavior first. To understand the origins of Islamic political parties, in this paper I look at (1) the political context under which Islamic political parties have been formed, (2) the Islamic movements that provide the societal base to these Islamic political parties, and at (3) the strategic mindset of Islamic political parties. My data comes from in-depth qualitative fieldwork involving party and movement documents, interviews with party leaders, and archival research in Jordan, Morocco, and Turkey, macro-level quantitative indicators, and modern Islamic political thought. I argue that strategic factors internal to Islamist movements, such as organization and strategies, play a primary role in informing the party’s political behavior and democratic commitment. By questioning the origins and internal structures of Islamic political actors, this paper offers an agential approach into ongoing socio-political transformations in the Middle East.