CAIRO: Egypt has barred several members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt s strongest opposition group, from travelling to Jordan for an event commemorating the group s founder, the Brotherhood said on Thursday. Brotherhood deputy leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters the members had wanted to travel on Wednesday to a celebration marking the centenary of the birth of Hassan Al-Banna, who founded the movement in Egypt in 1928, but airport authorities stopped them. Among those stopped were Banna s three daughters, two prominent Brotherhood leaders from Sharkia province and two technicians from the Brotherhood s Web site who were to broadcast the celebration online, the Web site said. Habib said Banna s son, Ahmed Seif Al-Islam, was scheduled to leave for Jordan on Thursday but chose not to try after the authorities did not answer his inquiries about whether he would be allowed to travel. The government did allow a few senior figures in the group to travel, including Mohamed Saad Al-Katatni, who heads the Brotherhood s parliamentary bloc. The interior ministry could not be reached for comment. The Brotherhood is Egypt s strongest opposition group, despite being banned since 1954. Members elected as independents hold 88 seats in the 454-member parliament, which is dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party. The US-based rights group Human Rights Watch said last month Egypt had intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood with a new round of arbitrary arrests.
