The Muslim Brotherhood is treading cautiously in the new Egypt, assuring the military government and fellow Egyptians that it does not want power and trying to dispel fears about its political strength. The target of decades of state oppression, the Brotherhood wants to preserve the freedoms it is enjoying under the new military-led administration that took power from Hosni Mubarak. So far, signs are encouraging for the Brotherhood: an eight-man judicial council appointed to propose democratic changes to the constitution includes one of its members. But experts say the group remains wary of the military. That partly explains why they have gone out of their way to say they are not seeking power – a reiteration of a position they have long espoused to avoid confrontation with the state. The Brotherhood has said it will not field a candidate for president and will not contest enough seats to clinch a majority in parliament. The message, experts say, is partly aimed abroad, especially at the United States, which has expressed some concern over the role the Brotherhood might play in the post-Mubarak Egypt. For now the Brotherhood is the only major political force left after decades of autocracy that suffocated secular parties, but its members say they expect other parties to develop and welcome a more pluralistic future political landscape. The Brotherhood might win 25 to 30 percent of the vote in a free and fair election, said Mohammed Habib, a member of the Brotherhood's Shura Council and its former deputy leader. “The Brotherhood wants to reassure the Egyptian people and the Arab and Islamic world that they do not seek power, or want to compete for power, as much as what matters to them is that there is freedom and democracy,” he said. Abou Elela Mady, a former member who broke away from the group in the 1990s, said the Brotherhood is “trying to send messages of reassurance to many parties”. The Brotherhood is now the only group ready for an election, while other parties need at least a year to regroup, he said. Throughout the revolt, the Brotherhood displayed the caution that long characterized its strategy in dealing with the Mubarak administration, initially saying it had no role in igniting the uprising before gradually joining it. Experts on the group now see it displaying similar caution towards the new military leadership because it wants to avoid a repeat of the crackdown it faced the last time the army came to power in 1952.
