The seeming honeymoon between the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most formidable political faction, and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) appears to be ending – or at least experiencing some turbulence. Recent statements issued by the two groups reveal mounting tension, the extent of which remains unclear.

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party rejected on Monday what they called “threats” by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which had advised the group in a statement issued Sunday to “avoid undesired past mistakes.” President Gamal Abdel Nasser had brutally purged the group in 1954, following a failed assassination attempt on him that he accused the group of perpetrating. The Brotherhood denied the accusation at the time, saying it helped Nasser overthrow King Farouk in 1952.

An MP from Jama’a al-Islamiya’s Construction and Development Party and member of the constituent assembly, Hani Noureddin, said Monday that his party “won’t give up the application of the Sharia and will defend the second article of the (1971) constitution,” which stipulates that the principles of Islamic law are the main source of legislation. Noureddin told Al-Masry Al-Youm that there is no disagreement among political powers over the second article, adding that his party is open to suggestions that are in accordance with the principles of Islamic law.

A senior Muslim Brotherhood member and businessman, who at this time last year had just been released from Tora prison, launched over the weekend the Egyptian Business Development Association (Ebda) to act as a channel of communication between investors and the government. “We want a renaissance of Egypt’s economy through encouraging investment, developing human capital, and helping to create economic decisions,” founder Hassan Malek said.

Since the fall of Mubarak in February 2011, Egyptians have carried the thought of a new constitution in the forefront of their minds. The issue polarised the country during a referendum on amendments called by Egypt's ruling military council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), in March 2011.

MP Mohamed Emadeddin, a member of Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee and a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, stated Monday evening that the Islamist group will consider three names in their bid to select a candidate for Egypt's upcoming presidential polls, according to Ahram's Arabic-language portal. The short-list includes Mohamed Mursi, chairman of the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party; Saad El-Katatni, the parliamentary speaker, and the group's deputy guide, Khairat El-Shater.

The Muslim Brotherhood is conspiring to rule the Gulf states, beginning with Kuwait next year as it is the most vulnerable, the Dubai police chief told Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas on Sunday. “I have sources that say the Brotherhood wants the Gulf regimes to reign but not govern,” he said, adding that the Islamist group will move on to the rest of the Gulf by 2016.

Outside the ballroom of the five-star hotel, bearded men in well-cut suits rush to line up for sunset prayers beside a banner announcing the day's event. Piety and commerce side-by-side, this was the scene at the Saturday launch of the Muslim Brotherhood-majority business lobby, the Egyptian Businessmen Development Association (EBDA, which also means 'start' in Arabic).

Until the late hours of 24 March, the names of the 100-member constituent assembly to draft Egypt’s first post-25 January Revolution were not yet officially announced. As many as 2,078 people are nominated for joining the assembly and it has proved cumbersome for members of the two houses of parliament - the People’s Assembly and Shura Council - to choose among them.

The Muslim Brotherhood attacked the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and the current cabinet for their management of the country Saturday. In a strongly worded statement, the Brotherhood said the military council's insistence on backing the current cabinet raises suspicions about the integrity of the presidential elections and the referendum on the new constitution.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist force that emerged after the Arab Spring, is plotting to take over Gulf states, Dubai's police chief said in remarks reported on Sunday. Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said he had his reasons to claim that the "Brotherhood was plotting to change the regimes in the Gulf," in an interview published in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas.

The vast majority of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, but there are a number of other Christian denominations with significant numbers of followers in Egypt. Ahram Online takes a look at three of the largest. The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Greek Orthodox Church is part of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which has many adherents in Eastern Europe.

Displayed on the shelves of every church bookstore in Egypt is a collection of writings by the late Pope Shenouda III. The covers of his books, which number over a hundred, are all illustrated with an image of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasseya and the pope’s name in the top right corner. Pope Shenouda, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 89 after a long struggle with disease, was an avid writer. He studied English literature and history at Cairo University in the forties, and upon his graduation in 1947, taught in a school, in addition to writing for a number of Coptic publications. He was even a member of the Journalists Syndicate before becoming a monk.

The Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, has slammed interim Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri in a short statement published on his official Facebook page Thursday, wondering why the Ganzouri cabinet continues despite its refusal by parliament.

Members of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church have unanimously proposed Bishop Pachomius to serve as the church’s acting patriarch until a new pope is elected. At a meeting Thursday, the Holy Synod also agreed to submit Pachomius’ name to the ruling military council, so it can issue an official decree naming him to run church affairs and supervise the papal election.

The leadership of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood will reportedly discuss the possibility of nominating a presidential candidate at a group meeting scheduled for Friday. Some observers say the move is indicative of a political dilemma for Egypt's largest and most influential Islamist group. "The Muslim Brotherhood is stuck,” said one Brotherhood source. “It needs to find an exit from its current dilemma by finding a presidential candidate it can throw its weight behind."

Several revolutionary forces have called for demonstrations on Friday and Saturday against the formation of a constituent assembly they fear will be primarily composed of Islamists. State-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported on its website Thursday that the Alliance of Egyptian Revolutionaries called for a protest before the High Court of Justice and marches on Saturday to the Cairo International Conference Center located in Nasr City, where the People’s Assembly and Shura Council plan to select the constituent assembly’s members.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s dismissal of presidential hopeful and former leader Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh was “against its customs,” according to one of the group’s former deputy supreme guides. “Abouel Fotouh did not violate the ideology or methodology of the group, but he went against a regulatory decision,” Mohamed Habib said in an interview on the privately owned CBC channel on Wednesday.

An advisory group to the US State Department called on Tuesday for Egypt to be put on a blacklist over religious freedom, saying that the country has failed to guarantee such freedoms and has imposed major restrictions on religious minorities. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report asked the State Department to add Egypt to the list of “countries of particular concern," which may be subject to sanctions if they do not work to improve religious freedom.

It is the end of an era and the beginning of another for Coptic Christians in Egypt, who are now without the patriarch who has headed their church for four decades. Pope Shenouda III, whose death at the age of 88 was announced on Saturday evening, was made patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt in November 1971.

Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb and Mohamed Badie, supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, on Wednesday visited the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral to offer their condolences for the death of Pope Shenouda III, pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the Saint Mark See. Tayyeb told church leaders that the pope was a close friend and a great pontiff who was always keen on the preservation of the Egyptian national fabric.