The Muslim Brotherhood - the biggest opposition force in Egypt - is mistrusted in the West and by some in Egypt. The BBC's Tarik Kafala investigates its platform and activities.
The Brotherhood runs hospitals, schools, banks, community centres, and facilities for the disabled in cities and towns all over the country.
Down a small residential street in Maadi, a huge suburb in south Cairo, is the Farouk Hospital.
Tucked away behind the mosque it is named after, it offers a full range of procedures, emergency surgery, dentistry, labs, psychiatric care, a pharmacy and a cafe.
Over the last 25 years, the hospital has gradually taken over a six-floor block of flats.
As you move around it you enter and leave what were individual homes, now knocked through into each other and messily rearranged to suit the needs of a general hospital.
The hospital is one of 24 across Egypt belonging to the Islamic Medical Association, an organisation affiliated to and supported by the Muslim Brotherhood.
In the emergency postnatal unit, Farida, one of the nurses, explains the care given to a baby boy born prematurely seven months ago.
"He's off the ventilator now, and is breathing well. He has reached an acceptable birth weight and should go home soon," Farida says.
The hospital director, Magdi Ahmed Abdel Aziz, is proud of what the hospital offers
'Dependent on donations'It can house 75 inpatients and handle 400 outpatients a day. There are 200 doctors on the books - some work full-time, some two or three shifts a week.
"We run a private hospital, so we charge for treatment," says Dr Aziz.
"But we offer all our services much cheaper than elsewhere. For those who cannot afford even this, we can offer our treatment and drugs for free.
"We can do this because doctors volunteer. We are also a charity so we depend on donations.
Dr Aziz is keen to say that the hospital is "non-political and non-profit making, and we offer our medical services without consideration to gender, race or religion".
Such hospitals are the cutting edge of the Muslim Brotherhood's much-vaunted social services.
The popularity of the movement among the millions of Egyptians living in poverty is widely explained in terms of the efficiency of these services.
The Farouk Hospital is clean and it works, its corridors bustling with poor and middle class Egyptians.
It is a noticeably Islamic institution; framed Koranic verses hang on the walls; the many women there, patients and employees, wear colourful headscarves and conservative clothes.
"This is a charitable organisation, it depends on goodwill. People volunteer to work here as part of their zakat," Dr Abdel Aziz explains.
Zakat - one of the pillars of Islam along with prayer and performing the hajj - is giving a portion of a person's wealth to the needy.
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