Egyptian police arrested a senior Muslim Brotherhood official and dozens of its supporters on Thursday after the Islamist group held a military-style show of force on a university campus.
Mohammed Khayrat al-Shater, a 55-year-old considered to be the Islamist movement's third-ranking official, was arrested at his home in Cairo before dawn, security sources said.
Dozens of students and teachers from al-Azhar University -- the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam -- were also detained overnight, the sources added.
"The number of students arrested was not specified, but it could be as high as 180," a security official said on condition of anonymity.
"At least three professors and several student leaders were taken during this sweep," a Muslim Brotherhood official said. "The 180 students were detained before dawn during a sweep at the al-Safa campus annex of al-Azhar."
Mahmud Ezzat, a top Muslim Brotherhood official who has been in and out of prison himself in recent months, confirmed the arrests and said that all but 10 of those detained were members of the movement.
The offices of Shater's import-export company were closed by security personnel and his financial director was also arrested, the Islamist movement said.
Student members of the opposition group had organized a demonstration at al-Azhar University on Sunday during which they held a military-style gathering, with some wearing black hoods and bandanas.
The protest, staged in front of the university dean's offices, sparked a fierce debate in Egypt on the nature and intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The interior ministry issued a statement accusing the organization of "having enlisted students to form a group called `the Deterrence Committees' after training them in martial arts and equipped them with batons and knives."
No weapons were visible on the pictures of the demonstration that were published in Egyptian newspapers.
The Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammed Mehdi Akef, issued a statement admitting the protest was "a mistake" but playing down its significance.
He said it was nothing more than "a theatrical play" organized by the students and charged that the government media campaign against his movement was an "unjustified escalation."
State-owned newspapers have attacked the Brotherhood in their columns all week, comparing it to Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
"We do not want to wake up one morning to find out that the tumor of Muslim Brotherhood militia is spreading in the Egyptian body. I do not want my country to repeat the tragic Lebanese scenario where militia have established a state within the state," wrote editorialist Mohammed Ibrahim in the pro-government al-Gomhurriya daily.
On Wednesday, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated student union issued a statement apologizing for "the negative image conveyed by our recent actions on campus."
"We acted that way because we felt that nobody was listening or doing anything to defend our freedom," the statement said.
"Our will continues to be ignored and our rights to political participation are being violated on campus," added the union, condemning the presence of security services in universities and the alleged rigging of student election results.
The Muslim Brotherhood is officially outlawed in Egypt but enjoys broad support.
Despite widely reported electoral fraud in favour of the ruling party, the Brotherhood managed to secure a fifth of the seats in parliament by fielding candidates as independents in last year's elections.
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