Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood sprouts dissenting parties

Egypt's 83-year-old Islamic movement is learning what it means to participate in the country's post-revolutionary democratic petri dish. Though the Brotherhood has banned members from participating in any political parties except their own Freedom and Justice Party, at least five groups have split off in recent months.

Islam Lotfy, one of the founders of the youthful Egyptian Current party, says he and his colleagues' ideology is more "tolerant" than the Brotherhood's. For striking out on their own, Lotfy and others like him now have been banned from the organization.

Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood's secretary-general, said it was "natural" that challenges would arise after the revolution and that there would not be mass defection. But never before has the Brotherhood had to deal with such open competition.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo.