Egypt protests: People to watch

The Muslim Brotherhood

Mohammed Abu Zaid/AP
Muslim Brotherhood seniors Essam el-Erian, center right, and Saad el-Katatni, center left, take part in a protest in Cairo, Egypt, on Jan. 30.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized opposition group, is technically banned in Egypt. The Islamist organization has avoided directly challenging the presidency of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak with its own candidate and in return President Mubarak has allowed the party some freedom to operate in the country, such as running its members in parliamentary elections as unaffiliated candidates (though fraud on behalf of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party in 2010 parliamentary elections wiped the Brotherhood out of parliament). The Muslim Brotherhood has avoided trying to harness the protests into an Islamist movement, but has so far joined the secular opposition that has thrown its support behind Mr. ElBaradei.

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