EGYPT - Wider Islamic Movement.

The Muslim Brotherhood - which has provided the intellectual seeds for Islamist organisations throughout the world as well as Islamist terrorist groups - is at the centre of calls for more democracy, not just in Egypt but in much of the Arab world. And in this restless Arab spring, the 77-year-old organisation, which favours Islamic law and says it is committed to democracy, has been roused from a public slumber. Worried that the proactive steps taken by secular Egyptian reformers like Kifaya could cost the Brotherhood its position as Egypt's leading opposition party has stirred the organisation into action.

In recent months the Brotherhood has organised demonstrations and in turn been hit hard by the government. Thousands of leaders and activists have been arrested in the past two months. In an interview published on June 7 by The Christian Science Monitor, senior Brotherhood leader Dr. Abdul Moneim Abul Futuh alleged that one of the arrested, who has since been released, was "severely" tortured while in custody.

The authorities on June 12 released 163 members of the Brotherhood. The Interior Ministry said 486 people were still being held for ties to the Brotherhood. They include leading members of the group, which like other opposition parties says recent political reform by the government aims to secure power for the incumbents rather than allow more competition. The Brotherhood's main leaders remain behind bars, including Secretary-General Mahmoud Ezzat and Issam Al-'Iryan, another senior Brotherhood official.

The Brotherhood says the constitutional amendment allowing a multi-candidate election aims to bar it from fielding a candidate. To contest the election, any party would have to win the approval of at least 65 MPs and the support of members of other elected bodies, which are all dominated by the ruling NDP.

Brotherhood leaders say democracy is not possible unless they and their vast constituency are allowed a voice. The government is just as forceful in asserting that any system which allows them a route to power will end in a new form of dictatorship.

In most of the Arab dictatorships, Islamist organisations are the principal opposition. If they come to power, they are likely to dramatically reconfigure their societies and their relations with the US. That unpredictable potential shift frightens not only entrenched regimes but the secular opposition groups as well.

The Brotherhood, which has branches in almost every Muslim country, favoured assassination of political opponents and violent tactics in its early decades, but abandoned terrorism in the 1950s. It has not been involved in political violence in Egypt since, though it does support political violence by Palestinians and by Iraqis, which it views as legitimate resistance.

Egypt is not alone in outlawing the group. In Syria, where the Brotherhood is one of the strongest opposition groups, the movement is illegal and membership is punishable by death.

On a day-to-day basis, the Brotherhood's leaders in Egypt have adopted a discourse of democracy - both practical and ideological, if their leaders are to be believed. "For the Brotherhood, the issue of freedom is at the top of our agenda now", says Mahdi Akef, the Muslim Brotherhood's soft-spoken supreme guide. The Monitor on June 7 quoted Akef as saying: "Freedom is at the heart...of Islamic law". He said the Brotherhood evolved a fairly unusual view of Islamic law. Most Islamic orthodoxy holds that apostasy - leaving Islam - is a punishable crime. But asked if his idea of freedom includes allowing a Muslim to choose another religion, or no religion at all, he said, "of course".

Yet almost every non-Islamist in Egypt fears the Brotherhood. The Monitor quoted Said Al-Kimmi, an author and historian of Islam who says he favours democracy for Egypt but limits on religious parties, as saying: "I'm not ready to sacrifice my nation to these people. They may say...they support democracy, but if you look at the history of their beliefs, democracy really doesn't fit with Islam. The shari'ah is anti-democratic - the rights of women would be attacked and they'd cut people's throats. If my choices are Mubarak's corrupt regime or them, I'll stick with what we have now".

While secular Kifaya activists are a narrow and elite strata in Cairo and a few other large cities, the Brotherhood's roots run deep throughout the country. There are 7,000 official chapters and a network of mosques and charities which run schools, provide medical services, and give aid to the poor. No one knows precisely how many members the movement has, but a Brotherhood rally against the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 drew more than 100,000 protesters. Prime Minister Nazief says he thinks that 10% of Egyptians support the group, at most.

Ali Abdel Fattah, the Brotherhood's chief organiser in Alexandria laughs at the quandary of his organisation. He says the Brotherhood is doing everything in its power to convince Egyptians of its commitment to democracy. But he concedes it is difficult to disprove that every democratic promise is part of a conspiracy to trick the people and seize power. He says: "The Brotherhood should be the ones who are afraid. We have not had the trial of power. We are not the ones who have formed military courts to jail opponents, executed peaceful activists, destroyed Egypt's civil society, or transformed the state into a series of personal fiefdoms. All we want is an open and fair system".

Abdel Fattah and other leaders point to their management of Egypt's professional syndicates as evidence that they are committed to democracy. The syndicates - quasi-official groups which are a cross between professional and unions and licencing organisations - hold periodic elections. Members pay fees. The syndicates run charities and pension plans for members.

In the 1980s, the Brotherhood began to take control of syndicates at the ballot box under the tutelage of Dr. Abul Futuh, a member of the Brotherhood's organising board and a probable successor to Akef, who is 83, as the organisation's supreme guide. Abul Futuh, who once ran the Doctors' Syndicate and remains a senior official there, points out that when the Brotherhood lost syndicate elections it peacefully ceded control. In recent doctors' and lawyers' syndicate elections, the Brotherhood ran fewer candidates than it could have, inviting representation from both pro-regime factions and secular opposition groups.

Dr. Abul Futuh says: "We changed from wanting to dominate the syndicates to allowing more plural boards because, even though we know we could win control easily with total Brotherhood slates, we would be excluding a lot of people. What we want out of our involvement in the syndicates is to give an Islamic democratic model, to show that it works in practice". Brotherhood leadership of these organisations has reduced mismanagement and improved their financial condition. It has give the Brotherhood a source of funds to advance its agenda.

The Doctors' Syndicate has sent a large amount of aid to the Palestinians, winning goodwill for the Brotherhood in the process. And while the board of the Doctors' Syndicate may have fewer Brotherhood members than it used to, the organisation's downtown quarters remain a bastion for the brothers. The hallways are covered with panoramic photos of the Brotherhood's 2003 protest against the Iraq war and pictures of Shaikh Ahmad Yassin, the leader of the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas who was assassinated by Israeli forces.

Abul Futuh says Mubarak is so deeply opposed to his organisation because of America, which he claims largely controls the Egyptian regime. He says the US knows the Brotherhood would change Egypt's policy towards Israel and probably overturn the two countries' 20-year peace treaty if it won power.

Abdel Fattah says the Brotherhood expects it to take decades to rise to power, but it is willing to wait. Ibrahim Al-Hudaiby, a Brotherhood member whose grandfather and great-grandfather ran the organisation until their deaths, is a student at the American University in Cairo. He says the movement's democracy rhetoric is no trick, and that the Brotherhood is unlikely to push for more open conflict with the government.