On May 18, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood submitted legal documents to the Political Parties Affairs Committee in order to register its new political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party. A Brotherhood leader said he expected the party to officially begin its activities on June 17.

The Muslim Brotherhood is far from the only Islamist group wanting to get in on the electoral action, however. The Media Line reports that the “Islamic end of the political spectrum is growing crowded with fringe movements” that want to participate in September’s parliamentary elections.

“The situation is extremely dangerous,” Nagib Gibra’il, a Christian lawyer and head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization, told the Media Line. “According to polls, Islamist parties will receive more than 50 percent of the votes in the elections and form the next government. This will jeopardize the revolution and the country itself.”

The Media Line reports that even though the Islamists enjoy broad support among Egyptians, they are taking great pains to present themselves as moderates to try to convince secularists—and the West—that they are not aiming for an Islamist takeover. The Safety and Development Party is one such example. This party was created by former members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement and its leader is Kamal Al-Said Habib, who spent 10 years in prison for his involvement in the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Despite this résumé, the party declared that it would allow Coptic Christians and women to join.

Another two men who have announced their intention to form a party are cousins Tareq and Aboud Al-Zumr, who belong to the Islamist Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiyya. They were released from prison only two months ago after 30 years in jail for plotting to kill Sadat. “Islamists do not seek to dominate,” Tareq Al-Zumr claimed in a press conference on Tuesday. Both the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Islamiyya are considered terrorist organizations by the U.S.

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is, of course, also downplaying its Islamist credentials. “MB is aware of its reputation in the eyes of the scaf [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] (and the outside world, for that matter) and is playing a shrewd game to dispel its image as an extremist Islamist group,” reports Stratfor (May 19). Hence its decision to include Christians and women among its founding members. It has also made the ridiculous claim that the new party will have no actual ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Our editor in chief wrote back in July 1993 that “Islamic extremism is gaining power at a frightening pace in Egypt. I believe [the] prophecy in Daniel 11:42 indicates you are about to see a radical change in Egyptian politics!”

As Islamist groups prepare to contest September’s parliamentary elections, watch for Egypt’s Islamic extremism to manifest itself in the country’s political system.