This is a book chapter that focuses on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (al-ikhwan al-muslimīn) and examines the diverse ways in which the Islamist organisation has reacted to periods of uncertainty throughout its history. This chapter will focus on three specific periods of the Brotherhood’s history in order to analyse their strategies and responses to governmental persecution and to their ongoing regime-imposed illegal status, these being the aftermath of the repression initiated by Gamal Nasser and the Free Officers, the response to Anwar Sadat’s assassination in the Mubarak era, and finally the events following the 2011 revolution and uprisings in Tahrir square.