CAIRO — At the rally kicking off his campaign for Parliament, Basem Kamel, a core member of the youthful council that helped spur the end of the Mubarak government, wrestled with his stump speech calling for civilian rule.

“We don’t want to return to the Islam of the Middle Ages,” said Mr. Kamel, his shaved head and white suit setting him apart in Sharabiyya, an impoverished northern Cairo neighborhood in his campaign district. “I don’t want the Islam that preaches I am right and everyone else is an infidel.”