Mubarak crackdown on granddaddy of Islamic militant outfits

Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Brothers up in arms:
"Reverberations from President Hosni Mubarak's 6 February order that 39 senior members of the illegal Muslim Brotherhood, including the group's number three Khairat El-Shater, be tried by a military tribunal dominated proceedings in the People's Assembly this week."

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the wake of WW1 and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is the original radical Islamist group. Despite occasional attempts at repression by successive Egyptian governments, it remains a potent force in Egyptian politics and influential among Islamist militants worldwide.