“In light of the oppression of Mubarak, the group was cohesive, one body,” said Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, a former member and Egyptian journalist who writes about Islamic politics. “Now there is freedom. Many ideas will come to the surface and break some of that cohesion.”…

Members and political analysts say the Brotherhood is deliberately keeping a low profile because its leaders are concerned that showing more ambition could backfire by stirring fear in the West and among secular Egyptians.

“You don’t know if what they say is what they want, and that’s the big concern,” a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity to voice an emerging concern…

In the past, only the Brotherhood and Mubarak’s National Democratic Party were able to turn out voters, said Elijah Zarwan, a Cairo-based senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

“If there are free and fair elections, we can expect broader voter turnout, and the Brotherhood could lose out,” Zarwan said.