Cairo, Egypt - Egyptian authorities have arrested 22 men including three Lebanese and a Kazakh national on charges of membership in an illegal organisation and contempt for religion, a judicial source said on Wednesday.
The source said the men belong to the al-Ahbash sect, considered heterodox by many Islamic clerics, and said they possessed literature outlining their beliefs.
Among the group's unorthodox beliefs cited by the judicial source are permitting Muslims to pray without ablutions, contrary to established Muslim practice, and seeking blessings from graves.
The source said the men had been attempting to spread their beliefs on the campuses of al-Azhar University, Egypt's prestigious centre of Sunni Islamic learning, and had managed to recruit a number of followers.
Prosecutors were questioning eight of them, and had ordered the remaining 14 remanded in custody.
The independent daily al Masry al Youm said on Wednesday the men had been arrested more than a month ago.
On Tuesday Human Rights Watch said Egypt's domestic security apparatus may have fabricated a case against 22 men detained in 2006 and accused of being part of a militant Islamist group that was planning attacks in Egypt.
The Ahbash group have a significant following in Lebanon, where they have strong historical ties to Syria.
In a fatwa published on the IslamOnline.net Web site in 2003, Egypt's mufti Ali Gomaa described the group as "deviant" and said it sought to "corrupt the Muslim creed and incite sedition amongst the Muslim Ummah. Moreover, they are paid agents to the enemies of Islam."
The Egyptian constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the Egyptian penal code contains penalties for broad offences such as contempt for religion, and these are sometimes used for closing down unorthodox religious groups. (Reporting by Aziz El-Kaissouni, Editing by Matthew Jones)