Muslim Brotherhood Organization

Egypt's main Islamist party and other opposition groups are strengthening their appeal by using images of desperate Palestinians streaming out of the Gaza Strip to provoke wider protests against President Hosni Mubarak's 26-year-old government. Demonstrations in Cairo and throughout the country by the Muslim Brotherhood and other political groups ostensibly have been staged to declare Egyptian solidarity with the residents of Gaza.

He was a boy in the mosques of Alexandria when the Muslim Brotherhood took him into its fold, inviting him to soccer matches and trips to the seaside. The brothers told Mustafa Naggar to be true to God and find a mission in life. He has done that. But the spiritual evolution and political ambitions of the 28-year-old dentist have put him at the center of a struggle between conservatives and reformers that may reshape Egypt's strongest opposition voice.

Egyptian police detained 29 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's strongest opposition movement, in a series of dawn raids across three northern provinces, Brotherhood sources said. Members of the group said aides to Brotherhood lawmakers had been detained, and deputy leader Mohammed Habib said senior members were among them. An Interior Ministry spokesman declined to comment. The officially banned group operates relatively openly but is subject to frequent crackdowns.

Egyptian police arrested five Muslim Brotherhood officials as part of a crackdown on senior leaders of the nation's biggest opposition group. The arrested included an official in the Brotherhood's executive office, a university professor and three businessmen, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. President Hosni Mubarak's government has escalated arrests against the group since it won 88 seats in the 454-member parliament in late 2005.

Egypt's regime is seizing upon a moment of regional chaos and U.S. inattention to crack down aggressively on the country's most popular opposition group and shore up its hold on power, analysts here say. In a bald push against the Muslim Brotherhood, the secular government in recent weeks has arrested hundreds of activists, unveiled new restrictions on political Islam and published a stream of anti-Brotherhood propaganda in the state-run media.

A court ordered a freeze on the assets of 29 known financiers of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful opposition movement. The ruling upheld a decision by the state prosecutor this year that is part of the government's push to undermine the fundamentalist movement financially. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, but it won nearly a fifth of parliamentary seats in 2005 with candidates running as independents.

He was barely a teenager when he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. Then in college he embraced communism and "tried to convince myself I was an atheist." Finally, after two decades of struggling with his beliefs, he returned to his Islamic roots.

Egyptian police arrested seven members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, including a former candidate in parliamentary elections, security sources and the Islamic group said. The sources said the men arrested included Ibrahim Haggag, who lost a parliamentary bid in 2005. The detainees were accused of belonging to a banned group and possessing anti-government literature.

Egyptian police arrested the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood's chief strategist and at least 140 supporters Thursday in a crackdown after a protest by uniformed students raised fears that the Islamist political group was creating a military wing. The Interior Ministry announced the arrests, accusing the organization of recruiting students at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt's foremost Islamic institute, and providing them with combat training, knives and chains.

Egyptian police have detained at least 350 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, the group and security officials said Sunday. The detentions took place Saturday after a large protest in central Cairo organized by the Islamist group against the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. A security source said the detainees were being held on suspicion of inciting demonstrations and membership in an illegal organization.