Egyptian police have arrested two relatives of an Islamic scholar who runs a U.S.-based center advocating for democracy and human rights in the Muslim World.

According to the International Quranic Center (IQC), officials arrested Mustafa Kamel Mohamed Ali Sunday. Ali is not politically or religiously active. But he is a cousin of IQC President Ahmed Subhy Mansour. Later, authorities arrested a second cousin who is who writes for the IQC.

Mansour, a former professor of Islamic history at Al-Azhar University, has managed to anger radical Islamists and the Mubarak government in Egypt. Mansour left Egypt after being fired from his job and jailed by the government.

According to the Center's post on the arrests, it's part of a troubling escalation in intimidating Mansour and his supporters through his relatives. Read the whole thing here.