| Egyptian police detained at least 36 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, EgyptÂ’s most powerful opposition movement, in dawn raids on Thursday, Brotherhood and security sources said. A Brotherhood source gave the number detained as 42. Police took the men from their homes in Fayoum province southwest of Cairo and in the Nile Delta provinces of Menoufia and Sharkia, the sources added. The men were being held on suspicion of membership of an illegal organisation and holding organisational meetings, the sources added, charges Egyptian authorities usually use to justify detaining Brotherhood activists. One security source said the detentions were part of a planned crackdown on the movement during preparations for municipal elections expected to take place in April. The government calls the Brotherhood an outlawed group but members hold a fifth of the seats in parliament. The organisation operates openly within limits, although security forces often detain members without formal charges. Including ThursdayÂ’s detentions, around 390 members of the group are in detention, the Brotherhood said. |