Jordan: Islamic Action Front Presses for Role in Governing (original) (raw)
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Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2014
This paper aim at understanding if the IAF in Jordan could be plausibly described as a vehicle of democratization of the country starting from its historic role of collaboration with the Hashemite monarchy, we have showed its strong willingness to be part of the political process since its first establishment and its grossrooted support among the Jordanian population. Moreover, we have seen that its high level of educated people among its ranks and leadership is highly likely to guide through a conscious use of the democratic rules of the game. Additionally, the IAF has experience of democratic practice because its inner structure is governed in a democratic way. Furthermore its political platform promotes key democratic principles such as the rule of law, accountability and freedom of expression. What is more is that it has demonstrated its credibility throughout its history of participation in the Jordanian political life, without promoting the overthrown of the regime by any means. To conclude, even if there are some criticalities, these are the one any Islamic party could be charged with and there are successful examples of Islamic party being governing democratic secular country, Turkey is the example above all. For all these reasons, I would argue that the IAF could positively be thought as an active agent of the process of democratization in Jordan.
Islamic Defenders Front: An Ideological Evolution
Synopsis The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) has gained a reputation as one of the most outspoken hardline Islamist groups in Indonesia today. It has evolved from a vigilante group into an organisation with a coherent ideology and political goals that might challenge the integrity of the Indonesian state based on the Pancasila.
Pénélope Larzillière. Political commitment under an authoritarian regime : professional associations and the islamist movement as alternative arenas in Jordan. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2012, 6 (1), pp.11-25. How does political commitment develop when actors are confronted with authoritarian processes? Under a liberal authoritarian regime, even the creation of democratic institutions may mean authoritarian stabilization (contradicting classical transition theories) rather than open an arena for political protest. However, alternative contentious arenas may appear, where resourceful organizations can be partially transformed into a basis for protest with challenging frames of reference. In the Jordanian case, the professional associations (in contravention of corporatism theory) and the Islamist social movement have thus gained oppositional capacity. However, apart from repression, their own economic and social roles, and their integration in the regime frame and limit the kind of political commitment they can lead. Ambivalence arises between challenging and integrated positions and when alternative arenas become so integrated in the regime that they lose their contentious role, radicalization processes appear. Both cases underline the versatility of political arenas and their relational characteristics. These political arenas are also the places where alternative ideologies are produced. At that level, the Islamist movement has a very specific position as a hegemonic ideological producer with no hegemonic power and position. The case thus supports an analytical separation between power position and ideology and confirms the need for less state-centred definition of ideology.
The Political Survival of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: From Participation to Boycott
uea e prints, 2015
This thesis explores the development of relations between the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and Jordanian regime from 1945 to 2010, in which a distinction is made between the pre- and post-1989 eras that demarked a significant shift from partnership to crisis. Utilising an historical approach, the first era is defined by both parties’ mutual pragmatism, establishing a unified understanding of the Palestinian issue, and what the nature of politics in Jordan would be. However, the post-1989 era is analysed within the context of the regime’s shift in interests from internal to external issues, subsequently changing its pragmatic discourse towards the Brotherhood and Islamic movements. This study suggests that the shift in the regime’s focus, teamed with the implementation of policies such as the ‘one vote system’ and the peace treaty with Israel, left a space for radical voices to rise within the Brotherhood. To understand if the Brotherhood is compatible to Jordan’s parliamentarian system, the research identifies circles of division within the Brotherhood between Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb’s ideologies in the wake of regional conflict and poor regime-Islamist relations. This bifurcation is exacerbated in Jordan, as seen with the opposing fronts of the Jordanian Brotherhood’s Shoura Council: Hawks of Palestinian origin vs. Doves of Jordanian origin, claiming a new division: the ‘new’ Hawks, or, the ‘Salafist Brotherhood’. Supported by exclusive personal interviews with Brotherhood leaders, this thesis argues that allowing Islamist movements’ limited political participation in Jordan is essential for the country’s stability and religious modernity as since the 2007 boycott, increasing numbers of al-Bannaist Doves have converted into Qutbist Hawks. This has empowered the Hawks to demand fundamental reforms regarding the monarchy’s existence, initiating the Brotherhood’s final 2010 political boycott, and positioning the once-allied movement outside the political process and indefinitely removed from accountability.
Assessing Jordan’s National Strategy to Combat Violent Extremism | The Washington Institute
2021
In considering terrorism’s current threat to Jordan, this attack should not be considered an isolated incident. According to studies by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS), nearly 4,000 Jordanian fighters joined the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and other locations since 2011. Now that IS has shrunk, the possibility of returning fighters pose a major concern for Jordan, as they bring back their military, combat, and organization experience to the country. Therefore, the Jordanian government amended its counterterrorism law to criminalize joining the Al Nusra Front, IS, or any other terrorist groups, and made promoting them in any way, including on social media, illegal as well. The amended law also allowed for the monitoring of mosques and religious sermons at an unprecedented level.return
Jordan's New "Political Development" Strategy
Middle East Report, 2005
We have a problem here. There is no real [opposirion] party except for the Muslim Brotherhood." 1 So an official of Jord an's new M inistry of Political Development and Parliamentary Affairs summed up the raison d'etre of h is place of employment.
Political Opposition and Reform Coalitions in Jordan
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2011
Jordanian politics has seen decades of pro-reform and pro-democracy political activism, but with little effective change on the Jordanian political system itself. This analysis explains how and why the regime has resisted more than cosmetic reform and democratic change. It also examines in detail old and new avenues of opposition reformist activism in the kingdom, from leftist political parties and the Islamist movement to new forms of pro-democracy activism in the form of grassroots coaltions, youth movements and social media activism. As both government and opposition in Jordan are affected by the 2011 Arab uprisings, this analysis examines the past and present possibilities for democratic political opposition and for an effective and unifed coalition for reform in Jordan.