AMMAN (AFP) — A military prosecutor has charged a member of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood with plotting to form a “militant faction” inside the kingdom, a judicial official said on Saturday. [source]
This one is more for the “unbelievable” files. If it’s one thing Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood knows, it’s that trying to create a militant faction on Jordanian soil is something that will surely result in an arrest (if not worse) and is generally futile to begin with. In other words, I assume that the very thought of creating a military arm is something the Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t even dare think about.
It seems to me that the Jordanian Islamists never make the news unless the state (predominantly the mukhabarat) are going after them politically – as per the 2007 municipal and parliamentary elections or being refused a license to hold a rally or making a fuss in the Lower House of Parliament – or if it’s something security related.
When it comes to the latter, it’s usually something completely out of the blue, and thus unbelievable to the Jordanian street, especially when they are simply “announcements” as opposed to presentable evidence. What is ironic about all this is that after years and year of attempting to erode the support base of the Islamists in Jordan, the state has yet to discover that none of their tactics are working simply because the Islamists are not a force that can ever be eroded in our part of the world – especially in the regional environment that we’re a part of.
The state has yet to recognize that the only way to really address the Islamists is by bringing them in rather than pushing them out, i.e. active political engagement. Moreover, providing a healthy alternative to the Islamist movement is also another good way to go.
Unfortunately, we’re still stuck in this cycle of unproven accusations and allegations, while the only alternative the people have to Islamists is a political arena rife with corruption, lack of accountability, bureaucracy, alienation, marginalization and trouble pronouncing the word “reform”.
If this is a battle for the hearts and minds of the Jordanian population, then it is a battle the state, with all its might, is simply destined to lose.
It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. Our government are masters in the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Oh my, if they were only successful in fighting corruption as they are in “discovering” plots.
Between the Jordanian regime and the Egyptian regime I don’t know who is more dishonest. Their excessive paranoia and overreaction is indicative of their rapidly declining popular base. They know it and they fear someone may want to exploit this. We were a police state before, run by chronically dishonest types. I am afraid its going to get worse and worse now and the truth will be the first victim.
assuming its true .. which nobody seems to think is the case .. but assuming its true .. what would be the purpose of said militant faction .. and who would fund/supply it .. “plotting to form a militant faction” is such a vague expression ..