The Muslim Brotherhood has seen worse in Egypt. Half a century ago the courts sent thousands of its members to brutal prison camps and hanged a dozen. For most of its 85-year existence the group has been formally banned. Yet never have the secretive and disciplined Brothers seen their fortunes fall so swiftly as now. Less than three months ago a Brotherhood stalwart, Muhammad Morsi, was Egypt's (legally elected) president, and his party Egypt's strongest. Now Mr Morsi languishes in jail awaiting trial, along with most of the Brotherhood's first- and second-tier leadership and perhaps 2,000 more Islamists-close to the number of Egyptians, many of them Brothers, killed in the violent unrest that followed Mr Morsi's ousting in July.
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