COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The Brotherhood and Mubarak ... The story of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and its emergence into the political arena after decades of suppression.

For years the Muslim Brotherhood was officially banned by Egypt's government, but following the 2011 revolution, the fall of Hosni Mubarak and the country's first free parliamentary elections, the Brotherhood - with its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party - has emerged as Egypt's most powerful political force.

'When you don't have a platform to express your political views you try to find another way. People had to use mosques, churches and professional syndicates as platforms for political expression. That was the regime's fault.' -Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood

In a political game of cat-and-mouse, as the Brotherhood's influence grew, Mubarak sought to oppose its rise - even to the point of amending the constitution to ban religious-based political parties.

The continued repression of the opposition was one of the main triggers for the mass anti-government protests by thousands of Egyptians in late January 2011, which led to the revolution that toppled Mubarak - an act that has enabled the Muslim Brotherhood to increase its power and influence inside Egypt's political arena.