The official flagship paper Al Ahram wrote on April 20th that "more than 100 members of a group called Hizb Al Tahrir (Party of Liberation), which is banned in Egypt, had been arrested by the authorities", but the number was later amended to 54. Al Ahram added that four of the men were British. The men were named as Reza Pankhurst and Ian Malcom Nisbett, who were detained in Cairo, and Maajid Nawaz and Hassan Rizfi, who were arrested in Alexandria.

Agence France Presse reported that local police "confirmed that four detainees were British and had links to Al Qaeda, the terror group blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States." Al Ahram said that the men detained "had no ties with Al Qaeda."

Egypt will not want to tie the men to Al Qaeda. As a valued ally in the fight against Osama Bin Laden's organization, the Egyptian authorities have no reason to portray their country as a theatre of its activities. Instead, the reports indicate that Egypt suspects the men of attempting to resurrect Hizb Al Tahrir. However, Imran Waheed, a spokesman for Hizb Al Tahrir, said that only three of the men belonged to the party. Rizfi was not a member. Waheed also added that the men were in Egypt for various reasons. Nisbett, was studying at Al Azhar University, in Cairo, Islam's most prestigious seat of learning. Waheed claimed that Hizb Al Tahrir did not support violence or terrorism because these run counter to Islamic beliefs.

But British Muslim students at Al Azhar told the Middle East Times that they had never met Nisbett. Muhammad Asrar said: "There is a small number of British Muslim students at the university and we all know each other. He can't have been at the university. If you study with someone and he suddenly disappears, you notice,"

It is unclear what charges, if any, the four men face and what treatment they received while in custody. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said that they "have not been charged. We continue to press the Egyptian authorities for information about their detention." However, AFP reported that unnamed police contacts confirmed the charge against the men as, "belonging to a clandestine and illegal organization with the goal of suspending the law and the constitution and preventing state institutions from accomplishing their goals."

In Egypt persons accused of a crime can be held for renewable two-week periods as investigations proceed. During that time, charges are sometimes added or dropped. In high profile cases, the media tend to predict charges and these are liable to be reported later as fact.

Waheed expressed concern at the treatment of the detained men: Information received through the limited contact they have been allowed with their families suggests that to date they have been treated very harshly and have endured torture at the hands of Egyptian security staff." Amnesty International was also concerned by reports of torture and called for "prompt, impartial, independent, and thorough investigations." AFP, however, quoted the Foreign Office in London as saying that the men's families had not complained about torture.

The British men have not been denied access to their embassy in Cairo, as some reports have claimed. The embassy confirmed that it had been allowed a consular visit and that it contacted the Egyptian Minister of the Interior. It added that a meeting was planned between British officials and the Ministry of Justice to establish the "due legal process".

Sheikh Taki Al Din Al Nabahani, a Jordanian Islamic scholar of Palestinian origin, founded Hizb Al Tahrir 48 years ago in Egypt. During the 1970s the group was banned in most of the Middle East. Since then it has become popular abroad and especially in the United Kingdom. The group's ideology has changed along with its location. It still addresses issues such as Palestine and other conflicts where Muslims are perceived to be the underdog, but now focuses on what Muslim communities abroad can do to support the cause of Islam. It strongly advocates the creation of a single, Islamic state for Muslims. But though it has been accused of anti-Semitism it is not known to support violence and is not on Britain's list of groups associated with terrorism.

Omar Bakri, Hizb Al Tahrir's leader in Britain during the 1990s when the group's popularity was at its height, was a Jordanian national. He was granted asylum in Britain after his political activities at home had angered the Jordanian government. Bakri became a media figure, along with other Arab political firebrands such as Abu Hamza. Abu Hamza was seen in the news when his young followers were charged in Yemen with plotting terrorist acts in 1997, but Bakri courted the cameras more actively. He was often seen on discussion panels and in documentaries. Yet Hizb Al Tahrir was never seen by most of the Muslim community and more established groups as more than a fringe movement for disenfranchised youth.

The group gained a high profile due to Bakri's television appearances and his inflammatory rhetoric about homosexuals and women. It handed out anti-Semitic literature on street corners. Eventually, Bakri split from Hizb Al Tahrir and formed Al Mohajiroon (The Emigrants), which is still in operation. Insiders claimed he had fallen out with other leaders who wanted to focus on events in the Islamic world, whereas he wanted to concentrate on Muslims living in the West and specifically Britain.

One 22-year-old British Muslim and former member of Hizb Al Tahrir told the Middle East Times: "It became clear to people that the West talked about principles but acted out of self-interest. It talked about human rights and democracy when fighting Iraq in support of a royal dictatorship in Kuwait". He went on: "However, Hizb Al Tahrir seemed to be talking about how to give Muslims back their self-respect...." Its formula was simple — creating a single Islamic state and getting rid of the existing regimes.