announced that should he do that he would arrange elections that would allow everyone from the muslim brothers to the communists to participate i can't see why anyone would have a problem with that you see if you know a lot a lot about the power of the plight of the palestinians in light of what's happening in egypt in tunisia some of the other protests that we've seen in the region and the palestine papers do you think the palestinian people now. or look at that example and say we need new elections we need and elections not only in the west bank but in gaza true elections where they reflect the people including hamas whether you guy fatah and hamas going to have to somehow come to some kind of agreement and then deal with the israeli government with a popular mandate because the palestine papers certainly don't does not show a popular mandate representing the palestinian people when they palestinian negotiators deal with israel. sure let me let me just begin by saying in regards to the israeli egyptian peace treaty that when that was signed yasser arafat when he was in beirut at the time. st

the muslim brotherhood is egypt's leading opposition group. it hesitated to join the protests. for years, the muslim brothers were considered islamic extremists. but now they are divided and appear to be more moderate. >> we are not striving for a religious resolution. we want a secular democratic state based on the will of the people, not religion alone. >> the muslim brotherhood is deeply entrenched in egyptian society, partly due to many social projects. a new beginning without the group is unlikely. one man enjoying growing support is [unintelligible] many remember when the general secretary of the arab league was the foreign minister. he was already considered mubarak's rival. many young egyptians would support him. >> i believe he is an alternative. he is a popular politician with many years of experience. his activities in the arab league means he has been out of domestic political events in egypt. that is an advantage. >> demonstrators are divided about who should succeed mubarak. they agree the president should step down immediately. >> in germany, e opsition has been sharply critical of the governm

if i'm going to come out here i mean muslim brotherhood was already brought up here and this is what the west is obsessed with obsessed with talking about the brother muslim muslim brotherhood and as it is a threat and at the same time it is a bit with the longest largest organization in egypt and it is not played a forefront role in all of this as my fact is it's backing up the democratic process and it says that the current government is not serious in dealing with the demonstrators and democratic agenda what do you think about that. i do believe that america and the west in general they are not booking policy of double standard especially we do know from your friend that in israel saying that stability. is before democracy and that the with stevie if it planes democracy will bring some people like the muslim brotherhood or hamas in palestine and democrats are elected they pretty fair dictatorship under shimon peres said that and this is silly policy if you like democracy for yourself you should like it for others as well and we need freedom we have the muslim brothers we need freedom we need equality we need justice and that will bring a democra

iran but i do bereave in future, coalition government, the muslim brotherhood will play a significant role. >> we hear a lot about the muslim brother hood here in the united states whenever we hear muslim and brother hood we think al qaeda. let's get honst about that. is that who they are? >> absolutely not. they have pretty much very little to do with each other. al qaeda is a group of -- a global network of people who would like to bring down the united states they are addressing u.s. imperialism around the world where as the muslim brother hood is focused on egypt and political reform from within. >> one of the things when we see a dictator go whether it be yugoslavia or any where, tension seems to rise between various minority factions in a country. egypt for example has a coptic christian community and other groups how have they faired under mubarak could things go south as far as that society goes? >> it has been a contentious issue because egyptian coptic christians have faced serious discrimination. egyptian government requires your religion put on your international id like putting your religion on your drivers license. eg

the muslim brotherhood is egypt's leading opposition group. it hesitated to join the protests. for years, the muslim brothers were considered islamic extremists. but now they are divided and appear to be more moderate. >> we are not striving for a religious resolution. we want a secular democratic state based on the will of the people, not religion alone. >> the muslim brotherhood is deeply entrenched in egyptian society, partly due to many social projects. a new beginning without the group is unlikely. one man enjoying growing support is [unintelligible] many remember when the general secretary of the arab league was the foreign minister. he was already considered mubarak's rival. many young egyptians would support him. >> i believe he is an alternative. he is a popular politician with many years of experience. his activities in the arab league means he has been out of domestic political events in egypt. that is an advantage. >> demonstrators are divided about who should succeed mubarak. they agree the president should step down immediately. >> in germany, the opposition has been sharply critical of the gov

i snow how the muslim brother hood stands for. they don't have to do that. i think they are very race ifrt. we don't say about the natzi or german society. the muslim brother hood is no different from them. >> not sure we are in any position to deal with this party or that party. it is not weather we deal with the brother hood but what message we send to the society about what kind of option we would be willing to deal with. appealing to the values. they have muslim in their name. that said. if there were elections tomorrow or a year from now, i would see them getting 20-30% of the vote. other groups have shown ability to turn egyptians out and mobilize them. there is reason to believe them there. there is no position to demand or reach for anything more. i think that would be the most likely outcome. >> one of our viewers saying, please review the questioning of the gaza election with the tentative ok. >> what happened in 2006 was that you did have a mass majority in parliament. the united states didn't question it going too far. they did make clear we are n

he still blames things on the muslim brother hood. now you see a much much more aggressive posture from the obama administration. president obama saying last night that mubarak or that there needs to be an orderly transition and it needs to begin now. that's what he said tuesday night, it needs to begin now. when robert gibbs the press secretary was asked, what does now mean? he said now means yesterday. so there's an urgency and there's a real concern officials tell me, the president is concerned that mubarak is going to delay this transition of power and that could cause a lot of trouble for the united states. >> charlie: and how do they see what might come after this and the u.s. relationship and the change in the middle east? >> not good. they don't see it as necessarily -- i don't think that there's anybody in the administration who thinks that the next government of egypt is going to be as close or cooperative with the u.s. even if it's headed by elbaradei, you won't have the kind of cooperation that egypt has provided to the uni

plus, the muslim brothers and this new figurehead. they will try to form a new, transition mary government. of course, the path forward -- transition marary government. of course the path for root will be difficult. >> this situation caught everyone by surprise. how do you think this will affect relationships with the rest of the world? >> it will influence developments in the middle east to a large extent. all arab leaders are now afraid that the same fate will read to them. there will be more openness in the region. in the first time in the history of the arab world, there will b a pcess of democratization. that is something very positive. israel not be the only democracy in the middle east. there will be others, so there will be a new power balance, and i think it will be difficult for israel to continue not making any compromises with the palestinians. >> thank you. the internet is filled with pictures of women on the front lines of the protests. this is truly exceptional. egypt is a very conservative country and the voice of women

. >> reporter: many of the fallen were muslim brothers. afterwards, they were all praised for their perseverance and unity. >> reporter: anyone who's covered egypt for years knows about the brotherhood's profound influence on egyptian society. coming back at this extraordinary time, i wanted to find out what part they were playing in this revolution. >> reporter: hi. i'm charles. nice to meet you. on tahrir square, i found mohammed abbas-- a leader of the muslim brotherhood's youth wing. for the past month, abbas had been working alongside secular activists from the april 6 movement to help organize the revolt. he was eager to show us what he and his fellow brothers had contributed. >> reporter: it was not until three days into the protests that the muslim brotherhood's senior leadership officially threw their weight behind the revolt. now, the brothers were running the security checkpoints. serving hot tea. distributing blankets. printing posters. and running an emergency health clinic. they call themselves the brothers-- in arabic, the ik

see, they've had it's easy, charlie, in the sense that mubarak kept a complete vacuum between the muslim brothers and his authoritarian regime. they had no competition. and therefore they didn't really have to, you know, think through a full platform of how to run egypt, the economy, what do we think of free trade, education, innovation policy? they had it kind of easy. all they had to say was hosni mubarak and they could win 20% of the vote. so if this system actually opens up, the muslim brotherhood is going to have to compete against is dynamic forces... political forces in egypt that you see on the street there right now. and that will be a wholly different situation i think that they can't imagine and that we can't imagine. >> rose: is the big question now whether mubarak leaves now, in the words of the president, or he leaves when he wanted to leave in september? is that the question? and how will that be determined? >> charlie, i just don't know. you know, i don't know how much of this is mubarak, how much of this is the new cabinet he's named, which is essentially an extension of him, and

just interject for one second look at the muslim brother i'm not going to sit here and glorify the muslim brotherhood they don't have as much of a sordid history i think as john is pointing out over the last forty years much less sordid than the regimes that have been in egypt but at the same time i trust the egyptian people in free and fair elections to hold the muslim brotherhood to account if they don't deliver if they read their provinces you know the beauty of a democracy is they get voted out so at the end of the day they're also that with us we have to work for america the brotherhood there is a concern a legitimate concern that revolutions go awry we saw that happen candidly with the russian revolution when it was hijacked in one nine hundred seventeen we saw in one nine hundred seventy nine in toronto so there's a legitimate concern about where revolution is headed force and so again it underscores the need for influential outside forces to help support liberal democratic elements within egypt so that the revolution is not hijacked and it doesn't want to go to you and give you th

are in china and india and the muslim regimes in this concretes priests in this concrete plant it's our breathe their twitter revolutions or than the brothers muslim whole dicking it's all work and work and work well hardly against the middle regimes in the region for example and you get a couple of more specific questions libya is could there be history or does he have means to to to to cling to power. you have no chance no trials. i'm not sure that anybody legal forget this situation when libyans were killed by people from africa people from clinique here somebody. from the you started bombing your own capital and some other city of your not more load it was a mistake it was the mob the mistake for birthing there was the principle ideal of these gentle men which means there's another leader of revolution he's a dick platter i'm out of all the liberal put in of his own but he's still he he still is there what's the support they still support him. he's still the year because. he have some small resources but even his truck on the not top was for become deaf and there are a son a leader's sort of for his clan her against him or he is not sup

all depends on how you define extremist or fundamentalists let me say that i don't consider the muslim brothers as extremists or fundamentalists but it's true that extremists. egypt but they are taking a back stage now is it likely that they see the muslim brotherhood playing a greater role legally on the egyptian political scene well according to the egyptian constitution nor part is a. to be constituted on the religious grounds if the muslim brotherhood would accept to form a party not on the religious grounds i don't see any reason why they shouldn't have that presumably because still insisting that he will remain in power until september who is advising him well we have we have a state in this country and president barak is not in this country by himself. so if president if president mubarak leaves the scene right now i guess i get the state we would come back but what about the united states what kind of pressure of a pushing on him well i hope that the americans would keep out of this crisis and they hope they would let us find a solution because the messages they are sending out in this

actually, just -- it's cool because last night i was sitting with a man who was a member of the muslim brotherovement and we were chatting and openly told him, oh, yeah, i'm an atheist and obviously secular and i believe this and that and he was talking about his point of view and it was cool, we didn't have any problem with different points of view. we all agree we have our differences but we'll sort our differences later because what we want is a democratic country where everyone can make his or her choice. so the idea is to get rid of this regime completely and not settle for anything less than hosni mubarak getting out and the government be completely overhauled and setting up a proper democratic country and having -- with everyone having the right to form his or her own party and political parties and whatnot and people can make their choices. that's what we want. we won't settle for anything less than that. >> if you want more information on egypt, go to our bbc news website. we have there all the very latest news and analysis there for you. there's a map showing the key flash points aro

will not ruin his regime like they tried do this in the siege of the not touch us in the car and the brothers muslims are there with things that can breath and must be killed because of all this blood on the streets of libyan cities what if regime have some resource any regime will be saddam hussein regime or cheney's regime will remember the plan and main. school year. or iranian regime if we say about the ahmadinejad and the green revolution which also was president but it was very religious what happened in iran. years ago we remember it yes but it had a very very strong religious flu what's happening in the middle middle east well despite the muslim brotherhood it's not religious at all or maybe a mistake of. the a mistake in both cases because in iran we have no situation when the first and second generation of the ayatollah send their children who pushed old know the general saw the military service a little my initial and there are many support them this way to nineteen thirty seven the great terror or in our own country stalin done also well at all as an oddball surely as well through prayer

the muslim brotherhood. you see, we had a situation here in egypt where you had mubarak and the muslim brothers and nothing in between. no authentic legitimate modern party that was legitimate. you had the state party in middle, it wasn't legitimate. life was good if in your opinion the muslim brotherhood. you had to do two things. you haus had to say hosni mubarak is a zionist or islam is the answer and you won your 20%. so life was good. because mubarak had set up a world where it was either me or them. so he could go to washington sand say "it's either me or the muslim brotherhood." and he killed everything in between. hello! what you see in tahrir square is what's going to be in between. the muslim brotherhood is going to have to compete with a range of parties, some left, some right, somes in a sirists, some progressive. i don't know what they are going to have to pay retail now for their 20%. they're not going to get it wholesale anymore and that's what's going to be interesting if this comes to pass and we still have to say we don't know. >> rose: but again the army will be there and they played a prom

now, to those who worry about the muslim brother hood, the example of iran 30 years ago looms large.emember, the iranian revolution was led, of course, by islamic extreme forces. but many others in this society joined in to outs the shah and then after about a year's time they were pushed out and it was then we saw the formation of the iranian -- >> so-called moderate iranian. >> right. and so we've had 30 years of continued troubled and tomorrow when you hear the threat assessment from the american intelligence officials who will be testifying in congress as an annual thing, you're going to hear a lot about the iranian nuclear program. and we're going to be reminded again that egypt isn't the only problem in the region. >> david, do you get any sense of how president obama has handled, what really is his first as you said earlier, hisçó first 3:00 a.m. call. can you give us any assessment how he's handling it, how he makes decisions. >> there are some things i found quite interesting in the way that he has kept his message consistent. for example. something that he said in his cairo

plus, the muslim brothers and this new figurehead. they will try to form a new, transition mary government. of course, the path forward -- transition marary government. of course the path for root will be difficult. >> this situation caught everyone by surprise. how do you think this will affect relationships with the rest of the world? >> it will influence developments in the middle east to a large extent. all arab leaders are now afraid that the same fate will read to them. there will be more openness in the region. in the first time in the history of the arab world, there will be a process of democratization. that is something very positive. israel not be the only democracy in the middle east. there will be others, so there will be a new power balance, and i think it will be difficult for israel to continue not making any compromises with the palestinians. >> thank you. the internet is filled with pictures of women on the front lines of the protests. this is truly exceptional. egypt is a very conservative country and the voice of wo

the muslim brother hood outlawed for more than 50 years took part in today's meeting. >> hundreds in the bay area turned out at san franciscos un plaza to support the protestors in egypt. they say they are inspired how the demonstrators in cairo have preserved in the face of pro government groups. they say the u.s. is too restrained in support of those resisting oppression it is not a time to fear what might happen next. >> another investigation into the san bruno pipeline explosion points to lack of remote shut off valves. it took pg&e an hour and a half to stop that flow of gas when it erupted into a fireball last september. >>> an associated press investigation found decades ago the federal government urged pg&e to install remote shut off valves they never did 13 the government never forced the issues. >>> >> oakland's new mayor is coming face to face with the community. major kwan hosted her first town hall meeting in west oakland yesterday. a couple hundred people showed up the mayor and her department heads were there and discussed everything from public safety to need for a maj

the touch credit. card and the brothers muslim check out of the we think of production must be killed because of all this blood on the streets of libyan cities what's it for regime have some resource any regime would be saddam hussein regime of cheney's regime will remember to turn on main. square. or iranian regime if we say by the ahmadinejad and the green revolution which also lost president but it was very religious what happened in iran. years ago we remember it yes but it's had a very very strong religious for the what's happening in the middle middle east carol despite the muslim brotherhood it's not religious at all or maybe i'm mistaken you're mistaken in both cases because in iran we have no situation when the first and second generation there told us and their children were pushed the generals saw the military service looted by our initial and how many support their slake nine hundred thirty seven the greek or or in our own country in stalin time also well they are tours and also it's my third prowlers absolute the same in libya the situation is not so clear because up to my view step by step.

it faces geopolitically falling into the hands of the irresponsibles, as mubarak might view the muslim brothers or the egyptian people. so this is the kind of critical thing that's happening right now is that the military is consolidating its hold. its decision not to fire on the protestors clearly indicates they've designed eight now no tiananmen option. but it also means they're lowering the temperature. they're occupying the key positions of power. the prime minister is mubarak's bosom friend. we know omar suleiman, the vice president, the military is consolidating its old, it's lowering the temperature and this is the risk because the military still has some legitimacy among the egyptians because they confused the source of their misery. they thought it was mubarak but it's also this military. and we need to affect this transition. >> we also don't know that mubarak is necessarily calling the shots directly because the military does consider itself the keeper of the revolutionary flame. they overthrew the government in 1952 and they may have decided that it's time for him to go. he's been t