Egypt detains 73 Islamists in Nile Delta

Cairo, Jan 20: Egypt has detained 73 Islamists in the Nile Delta pending investigation into what ties, if any, they have with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, security sources said today.

Deputy Brotherhood leader Mohamed Habib denied his group, Egypt's largest opposition movement, had any connection to the men in detention.

The security sources said the men, arrested in the province of Manoufiya mostly over the past several days, were members of Salafist groups that follow a conservative purist brand of Sunni Islam.

The daily al Masry al Youm newspaper said the detained Salafists were accused of forming a group to support the Brotherhood, especially in elections due later this year for the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament.

It said the detentions of the Salafists had started this month after the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday and accelerated alongside an upsurge in arrests of Brotherhood members in which scores have been detained.

Egyptian authorities launch regular crackdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood, which operates openly despite being officially banned in 1954.

But some analysts say the government is preparing a wider assault on the group after President Hosni Mubarak said this month the Brotherhood posed a threat to Egypt's security.

The government was also angered by a protest march at al-Azhar University last month in which Islamist students wore militia-style uniforms and black balaclavas. State media, in charges dismissed by the Brotherhood, has said the march showed the group was forming a militia.

Mubarak has proposed constitutional amendments that include a ban on forming political parties based on religion. The Brotherhood says it wants to establish a civil, democratic party that is not exclusive to Muslims.

Brotherhood members elected as independents hold 88 seats in the 454-member lower house of parliament, which is dominated by Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.

Reuters