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| By Associated Press December 12, 2006 |
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Police have started a probe into whether the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's top Islamic opposition group, is setting up a military wing after members demonstrated in a Cairo university in black-clad militia-style uniform, security officials said Monday.
About 50 Brotherhood student members staged a military-style parade in black uniform and balaklavas during a protest Sunday by hundreds of Broterhood supporters at the Al-Azhar Islamic University campus.
A security official told The Associated Press that the police had opened an investigation into whether the group has set up a militia.
A Muslim Brotherhood leader denied any military training or setting an armed wing."We have no militia and no military wing," Mohammad Seyed Habib, the group's deputy leader, told the AP.
"I am very surprised. We are a peaceful group," he said.
None of the Brotherhood members were arrested during Sunday's demonstration, called to protest the expulsion of some Brotherhood supporters from universities. None of the students was armed.
Police were gathering evidence on the students, trying to determine if they acted on their own in wearing the uniforms or on instructions from the Brotherhood's leadership, security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
The Brotherhood, which renonced violence in the 1970s, is banned in Egypt and hundreds of its members have been arrested the past year. Still, it is the most powerful political rival to the government of President Hosni Mubarak.
It won 88 of parliament's 454 seats in elections a year ago, with its candidates running as independents.
The Brotherhood, which was officially banned in 1954, has always been accused by the government of aiming to set up an Islamic government in Egypt.
The group established a military wing during the 1948 Middle East war to fight against Jewish forces setting up the state of Israel. The militia also fought the British army which stayed in Egypt until withdraw in 1956. It was accused of an attempted assassination against former President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
But since the 1970s, it has said it is adhering only to political activity. In recent months, the group has been increasing its influence in powerful trade unions and using its new weight in parliament to issue challenges to Mubarak's administration.
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