Thousands of protesters were in the streets here on Sunday, and thousands more riot police, but for a few moments the only sound was the cars rumbling by and the occasional crackle of a police radio. It was prayer time, and the slogans calling for freedom and democracy had stopped as many of the protesters turned to face Mecca.
This was not a typical protest, with a few hundred demonstrators chased and beaten by police. This was the Muslim Brotherhood showing its muscle -- showing that it alone among opposition forces can summon thousands of people to the streets -- and while the government refuses to allow it to operate as a political party, it remains Egypt's strongest opposition political force by far.
This was also the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrating a new degree of discipline. A month earlier, it joined a rally as part of a coalition, but the group quickly fractured when the Brotherhood members broke into religious slogans. Not this time.
PHOTO: AFP
As Egypt prepares to kick off its first multicandidate presidential campaign tomorrow, leading to a Sept. 7 election, and as it experiments with new boundaries for political speech, the Muslim Brotherhood has re-emerged as a crucial player. Political organizations and party members are turning to it for help, even endorsements, and the nascent democracy movement helps it bring its members out to the streets.
"The point behind these demonstrations is to make people on the street feel like there's political activism," said Ali Abdel Fattah, a Brotherhood member who has pushed the organization to become more confrontational with the government. "The Egyptian street never saw this kind of movement before."
The Muslim Brotherhood, which describes itself as a moderate Islamic organization that wants to bring Islamic law, or sharia, to Egypt, has been outlawed since 1954, when its leaders tried to kill Prime Minister (later President) Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Despite the ban, the organization has been tolerated, though its leaders have been periodically arrested and thrown into jail. Today it operates from a first-floor office in an apartment building in the El Roda section of Cairo, on the banks of the Nile, where a Muslim Brotherhood sticker is affixed to the door.
"We live in a very repressive atmosphere," said Muhammad Habib, the Brotherhood's second in command. "We are very keen to form our own political party. The regime won't allow us."
When asked recently to discuss the Brotherhood's status, government officials refused, and the spokesman for President Hosni Mubarak's governing National Democratic Party did not return calls asking for comment. In the past, however, Mubarak's supporters have said they would never allow a religious group to become a political party.
In recent days, the Muslim Brotherhood has adopted the language of reform, moving away from its traditional slogans such as "Islam is the Solution." It has also tried to balance its show of muscle with an effort to form political alliances, in part by holding down the number of members it brings out to rallies in an effort not to overwhelm other groups in its informal coalition.
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