The Middle Eastern nation of Jordan has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood group, following claims that some of its members had plotted to destabilize the country.
‘’It has been proven that members of the group operate in the dark and engage in activities that could destabilize the country,” Jordan’s interior ministry said in a statement on April 23.
“Members of the dissolved Muslim Brotherhood have tampered with security and national unity and disrupted security and public order.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the region’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has denied any involvement in the alleged plot.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the Brotherhood’s political wing in Jordan, is the country’s largest opposition party.
Since 1992, the IAF has operated legally in Jordan, where it enjoys considerable popular support and has offices in a number of towns and cities.
After legislative elections held last year, the IAF became the largest opposition bloc in the country’s parliament.
However, most assembly seats remain held by representatives loyal to Jordan’s long-ruling Hashemite dynasty, which is currently led by King Abdullah II.
Wael al-Saqqa, IAF secretary general, has denied that the party has any organizational ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, describing the IAF as an independent political party that operates within the confines of the law.
Speaking earlier this week, al-Saqqa claimed that the IAF has “no relationship with any other organizational body, whatever it may be.”
The IAF, he added, remained firmly committed “to order, the law, and the provisions of the constitution.”
Nevertheless, Interior Minister Mazin al-Farrayeh said on April 23 that all Brotherhood-linked activities had been banned countrywide and that anyone found promoting the group’s ideology would face prosecution.
Within the context of the ban, he added, all IAF offices would be closed down, while all the party’s assets and properties would be confiscated by the state.
Opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is currently banned in most Arab countries, say the group is a dangerous terrorist organization.
But the Brotherhood says that it disavowed violence decades ago and now pursues exclusively peaceful means to achieve its political goals.
Alleged Destabilization Plot
According to al-Farrayeh, the interior minister, IAF members stand accused of plotting attacks on sensitive locations and security targets in Jordan.But he did not name the targets of the alleged plot, which he said was aimed at destabilizing the country.
Last week, Jordanian authorities arrested 16 party members on claims that they had planned to attack several targets in Jordan—with rockets and drones—after having received training in Lebanon.
Authorities said they had found clandestine facilities for the manufacture of rockets and drones—claims that The Epoch Times could not independently verify.
Long seen as a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, Jordan currently hosts more than 3,500 American troops and a string of U.S. military bases.
With a population of more than 11 million, Jordan shares borders with Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Israel-occupied West Bank.
Jordan is also home to millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, most of whom fled to the country in 1948—after the creation of Israel—and after the 1967 Arab–Israeli war.
In 1994, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, becoming the second Arab country to do so after Egypt.
In recent years, the Jordanian government has clamped down on political opponents—and ordinary citizens—using legislation aimed at stifling dissent, according to international rights groups.
The government, for its part, says it tolerates public speech that does not incite violence.
