Following Hosni Mubarak’s proposal to open Egyptian elections, the Islamic supremacist group Muslim Brotherhood begins flexing their muscles—and Mubarak flexes back: Egypt Arrests Members of Banned Group. (Hat tip: zulubaby.)

CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian security arrested scores of members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, but hours later the group demonstrated against the government.

The crackdown and protests came a month after President Hosni Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to open presidential elections later this year to more than one candidate. The move revived Egypt’s stagnant politics, setting off debate on the country’s future and leading to pro-reform activists demanding change.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Mohammed Osama, initially put the number of arrests at 48, saying most members were taken into custody during early raids in at least five different provinces.

An Interior Ministry statement later said another about 50 Brotherhood members were detained during street protests after the group’s leaders ignored “warnings not to go out in rallies.” Among them were top Brotherhood official and prominent physician, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, and five other group leaders. The six were later released.

It wouldn’t be an AP story if the Arab writer didn’t attempt to downplay the radicalism of the Muslim Brotherhood:

The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt’s oldest and largest Islamic political group and is believed to have tens of thousands of supporters in the country. The group was established in 1928 and outlawed in 1954 after the government accused it of advocating the violent overthrow of Egypt’s secular government.

The Egyptian government didn’t simply “accuse” the group of advocating violent overthrow, of course; the Muslim Brotherhood was always completely open about their plans to impose shari’a by force if necessary—until, after being relentlessly stomped by Mubarak, they learned how to practice taqqiyeh and say things like this (dutifully reported by the AP in every story about the Brotherhood):

Since the 1970s, the Muslim Brotherhood has pledged to use only peaceful democratic means to establish an Islamic state.