Despite a show of unity in Jordan following the execution by fire of pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh, and a call to arms to avenge the killing, the Muslim Brotherhood is unwilling to join the Hashemite Kingdom in an anti-IS coalition.
The Brotherhood’s leader in Jordan, Sheikh Hammam Saïd, called on Jordan in a Radio Sawa interview on February 5 to withdraw from the anti-IS coalition, claiming that “Jordan should not be part of a coalition run by the United States.”
Hammam Saïd is a known critic of the Jordanian Kingdom, who in the past has called for Jordan to cut off relations with Israel.
At the same time, within Jordan there is sharp criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose Jordanian branch – known as the Islamic Action Front – published notices condemning the murder of Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh, while stopping short of criticizing the IS organization and declaring the dead pilot a shahid.
The statement described the pilot’s murder as a “crime,” but the description of the incident contained no reference to IS.
Many Jordanian Facebook users expressed extreme anger at the Muslim Brotherhood statement, calling it “lip service.”
In an appearance on one of Jordan’s privately owned television channels, Sheikh Hamza Mansour, former Secretary General of the Islamic Action Front, refused to call IS a “terror organization.”
Sheikh Salam Salameh, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared, “IS members are, in one way or another, considered Muslims and we must not stand with the enemies of Allah against the people of Allah (the IS).”
Salameh added that, “Jordan is the reason for Al-Kasasbeh having been burned. It was the Jordanian government’s decision to send its army into Syria to assist the [Syrian] government against the rebels in their war, in which it [Jordan] has no interest. It should have adopted a similar position to Turkey.”
