Syria's Muslim Brotherhood: 'Our time has come!'

"... said it was trying to take a larger role in organizing the disparate opposition as Syria's street protests appear to wane....(and) as opposition activists fail to coalesce into a solid front... The Brotherhood poses a particular problem for some of the antiregime activists trying to forge secular coalitions more in line with the street movement...
On Sunday, two days after Syria's government said it would start a "national dialogue"—and on a day of protests in which at least six people were killed— the Brotherhood slammed the initiative and said it would "deploy our full energy to back and support" protesters. Mr. Salim said on Monday the group wasn't taking a stronger line, and will not call people onto the streets."We have caution, understandably and justifiably so, not to call on the street to protest—we have just announced our cohesion with a movement that has its own momentum," he said...
Last summer, Muhammad Riad al-Shakfa succeeded Ali Bayanouni as the Syrian Brotherhood's leader, raising concerns that gains made under Mr. Bayanouni to shift the movement to the center would be reversed. The party under Mr. Shakfa, seen as taking a harder line, found itself "sitting on the sidelines of history" as the Arab Spring swept into Syria, one opposition member described.... Failed alliances, including abandoning in 2009 a coalition with former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam after he turned against the regime and brief overtures to the regime itself cast doubt over the Brotherhood's ability to command leadership of even the anti-regime movement abroad. "Those 30 years destroyed their organization, and they lost their legitimacy because they changed positions so much without explanation over the past five years," said Burhan Ghalioun, an opposition member who is a scholar of contemporary oriental studies at the Sorbonne in Paris....
"People on the street are getting tired, they're running out of resources, and they don't have that much experience," said one protest coordinator outside Syria. "They recognize, and we have to recognize, that the Brothers are better organized and better funded."