Since January 2011, the Arab region has been shaken by a wave of political unrest. The protest movements that took place throughout the region toppled autocrats in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt and brought into the circles of power rulers from Islamists movements. In Morocco, following the 2011 legislative elections, the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) has won a majority of seats in parliament and is currently leading the government. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood -affiliated Freedom and Justice Party won the 2012 parliamentary elections with 47,2% of seats and the presidential elections. In Egypt and Morocco, Islamists are confronted with at least a three set of interrelated challenges: 1) Internal challenges: Islamists in Morocco and Egypt have shown a limited capacity to govern and to run their countries, 2) Islamists are participating in a transitional context which is characterized by high expectations from the people and 3) they do not have control over power and have been facing strong resistance from their regimes. In this paper, we will look at the strategies through which the Islamists in both countries try to deal with this set of challenges. Taking the concept of normalisation a key element of the new forms of Islamist politics, the paper takes a comparative approach in to dealing with how Islamists in two different political contexts confront common problems and propose solutions. For Egypt, we will start examining the strategies adopted by Muslim brotherhood in two controversial positions: firstly, when they ascended to power marking the passage from being excluded to being included in the political arena (before July 3rd ,2013). Secondly, after the ouster of the President Morsi and being declared as a banned terrorist group marking the passage from being included to being excluded from the political arena (after July 3rd ,2013). This will help us look at the strategies they have used to gain power and the strategies they are currently using in order to survive as a political force. For Morocco, the paper will look at how the PJD has attempted to normalize its political presence in a context dominated by the makhzen and politically divided parties. Part of the process of normalization of the PJD is his gradual detachment from a religiously oriented discourse and his willingness to play the political game as imposed by palace politics.