Tide turns in favor of Egypt\'s Brotherhood in revolt

Sun, Feb 6 2011 CAIRO

The first time Essam el-Erian, went to jail, he was 27. Last Sunday, he left prison for the eighth time at the age of 57.



The medical doctor\'s crime for each incarceration was belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt\'s most influential and best-organized Islamist opposition movement and long feared by President Hosni Mubarak, Israel and the United States.



Egypt\'s courts have repeatedly rebuffed the Brotherhood\'s requests for recognition as a party on the grounds that the constitution bans parties based on religion.



Now the world could not look more different to the past three decades when Brotherhood members were repressed, arrested, tried in military courts and shunned by the Egyptian government.



After the last tumultuous days of popular revolt against Mubarak, it is now the government that is seeking out the Muslim Brotherhood to discuss Egypt\' future.



Mubarak\'s Vice President Omar Suleiman met opposition groups on Sunday in talks joined for the first time by the Brotherhood.



The once outlawed group is finally well-placed to play a prominent role as Mubarak\'s government struggles to survive after 30 years in power.



I\'ve been in and out since 1981,\" said Erian, a leading figure in the Brotherhood. \"I have seen all forms of torture. I have been suspended by ropes, beaten, electrocuted and left outside in the cold for hours. I must say the treatment improved along the years and because of my age.\"



\"All this only increased my resolve,\" said Erian. \"The Mubarak regime exists to monopolize not only power but wealth.\"



Erian was among 34 Brotherhood members who walked out of Wadi Natroun prison last Sunday after relatives stormed the jail, overcame the guards and freed the prisoners during protests which spilled out of control across the country.



Erian, rounded up last month during preparations for the protests, went straight from jail to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of anti-Mubarak protests.



POWER THROUGH THE BALLOT?



His group has been active in the uprising. But decades of repression have taught the Brotherhood to take a backseat and it is anxious to maintain the impression that the Islamists are one part of the wider protest movement.



\"We\'re not seeking power but our participation is a duty under a democratic and independent process. Our goal is to make sure the identity of society is Islamic,\" Erian said.



\"It is the right of everybody to compete and if people like us then where is the problem? We have sacrificed a lot...It is our right to win a majority as in any country, like Turkey.\"


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