Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanians are watching the situation on their northern border with Syria, with the cruel Amman bombings of 2005 in the back of their minds. Most of them have religious ideas that are not that different from the beliefs of extremist groups. Some still believe in establishing the Islamic caliphate, while others are afraid of criticizing radical groups since they speak in the name of religion.
Meanwhile, Jordanians are unconsciously heading toward moderate religion. They are being drawn to certain beliefs and opinions they seem inclined to follow.
In the presence of these contradictions, they are living in tension and fear of terror that might cross the northern border and destroy their security in the name of God. The threat will grow if Jordan openly declares its support for the moderate forces fighting in Syria to the detriment of radical movements. Although the authorities deny training moderate Syrian fighters in Jordan, politics will show, through the recent decisions reached, whether Amman will accept or refuse the request of the United States and Saudi Arabia to participate in the operation of supporting moderate Syrian fighters at the expense of extremists.
These decisions include a draft amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Law, which was presented by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour’s Cabinet to the parliament recently. This draft bill comes a month after Saudi Arabia started applying its anti-terrorism and anti-terror financing law. The topic is highly debatable. Did Jordan really need new amendments to protect it from terrorism? What is the history of the relation between the authorities and these [radical] groups. Will the MPs’ approval of these amendments lead to classifying the extremist groups as terrorists after they were deemed “legitimate”?
Lawyer and activist Omar al-Atout described to As-Safir the draft amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Law as a message to the West to reflect Jordan’s fulfillment of its international commitments.
“The government is referring young activists to the State Security Court on charges of undermining the regime. According to the law, the government is not entitled to do this because this specific accusation does not apply to activists. Amending the law simply constitutes a message to the West that Jordan is fighting terrorism; since the government is not obeying the law, neither is it waiting for legal texts to ensure protection,”Atout said.
The Ensour Cabinet's recently submitted amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Law to the parliament, included a clause that criminalizes the act of joining extremist Islamist groups fighting outside Jordan and considering the person affiliated with these groups a terrorist. Jordan approved the Anti-Terrorism Law in 2006, following the Amman bombings in 2005. Atout said “the presence of texts in the 1962 Jordanian Penal Code ensure the protection of the state from any terrorist crime; in addition, there is a whole section on crimes against internal and external state security.”
In light of this, a writer and researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies in Jordan, Ibrahim Ghraiba, confirmed to As-Safir, “The new amendment draft law is just another opportunity to crack down on freedoms, social activity and the independence of society, in addition to the media and Facebook through clauses that put the virtual world within the scope of planning terrorist acts or supporting it.”
“These laws have been introduced to expand the discretion of the military judiciary and to accuse anyone who disagrees with the state, not only those who threaten the security of the country. These laws cover a broad range of issues and do not concern Salafists only. They might also include resistance groups in the future, as there is a disparity in the terms used in the texts and in the general mood between the public and the authorities,” Ghraiba added.
It is noteworthy that the Jordanian authorities have signed the Wadi Araba Peace Treaty, while the people still see Israel as a hostile Zionist entity and consider movements like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah esteemed resistance groups. The terrorism-related clauses could be adapted in a way stating that whoever supports resistance groups evidently supports extremist terrorist movements.
The relationship between the authority and Salafists
Ghraiba thinks that religious groups, especially Salafists, work freely in Jordan because there is an implicit agreement with the regime that their work is related to preaching, not politics. He indicated that the authorities believe that it is “protecting religion and leading the religious institution.” Nevertheless, he does not deny that the regime used the Muslim Brotherhood to undermine the public presence of leftists and nationalists in the country.
However, when the Brotherhood started posing a political threat to the regime, the tight ties between both parties changed. Ghraiba is convinced that this is the case, and he illustrates his idea with dates. According to him, the rift between the Brotherhood and the regime started in 1984, when the Brotherhood entered the parliament and its public popularity increased.
“When nationalists and leftists were influential, they posed a challenge to the regime. Now we find them participating in the government and the parliament, because they simply constitute a political challenge,” he said.
Here we can say that the regime used the Salafist school of thought that was critical of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. Mohammad Abu Rumman, a researcher specialized in Islamic groups, talks in an article titled “Salafism in the Levant” about how Salafism found its way to Jordan in the 1980s, without denying the presence of some Salafist elements in the general sense since the establishment of Transjordan through some reform figures who accompanied Prince Abdullah such as Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib and others.
According to Ghraiba, these religious changes that happened in the country started to change the aspects of religiosity, which was not historically Salafist but closer to moderate and Sufi.
“The religiousness of Jordanians is different from the Najdi and Wahhabi religiousness. Moderate religiousness, nationalism and leftism faded away, and society became Salafist. Even some leftists follow Salafism in their homes and on the streets, while they were raised old leftist slogans,” Ghraiba noted, saying, “Salafism invaded society. Even the religiousness of the Muslim Brotherhood became Salafist. Salafism is now introduced as a style of religiousness.”
Yet, during the Arab Spring, there was a moment that made the Jordanian regime feel threatened by these groups, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood. Ghraiba explains, “At this moment, Islamists assumed power in Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt and Turkey, while in Palestine, Hamas assumed power over Gaza. Add to that the challenges posed by armed Salafist groups coming from the northern borders. Does this mean a complete rupture between the regime and Islamist groups?”
Today, even if relationships between Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood on one hand, and the regime on the other, were tense, the regime will not give up on Islamic faith.
“Religion is necessary for regimes, notably the Jordanian regime. The Hashemites are the descendants of the Prophet and will always be keen to play a religious role, and the various religious groups support this role,” he explained
It is important to note that religious groups in Jordan are not only Salafists and affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, but also include Ahbash, Sufis and other groups.
*Al-Monitor
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