Extremism could expand to Jordan, top militant warns
An al- Qaida-linked Jordanian militant leader warned on Friday that the kingdom is “not immune” to the chaos befalling neighbouring countries.
But Mohammed al- Shalabi acknowledged that a Sunni extremist group’s recent declaration of a caliphate spanning Syria and Iraq was threatening to divide the jihadi movement.
Al- Shalabi, a senior leader of ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis in Jordan, said the fighting between rival militant factions in Syria has already undermined the battle against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Al- Shalabi, who spent 11 years in Jordanian jails on charges including plotting to attack a U.S. military base in the kingdom, said Jordanian Salafis have stopped sending their supporters to join the rebel ranks in Syria, fearing they will end up fighting other Muslims. More than 1,600 Jordanians have fought in Syria, and 250 of them have been killed, al- Shalabi said.
He spoke in a rare interview with a western media organization at his home on the outskirts of the southern city of Maan, an impoverished area that has seen protests by supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
ISIL has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria and announced it has established a long-sought Muslim caliphate. The announcement has been rejected and even derided by many of the rival Islamic rebel factions fighting in Syria.
Al- Shalabi urged Jordan — a U.S. ally that relies heavily on dona- tions from the U.S. and oil-rich Gulf Arabs to keep its fragile economy afloat — to adopt Islamic Shariah laws and more balanced economic and social policies. “Jordan is not immune to what is happening in neighbouring countries,” he said.
Despite facing protests amid the Arab Spring wave of revolutions in the region, King Abdullah has remained in power by promising to speed up reforms he began since he ascended to the throne in 1999. Opposition parties have yet to gain real power since 34 years of singleparty rule ended in 1991.
The rapid expansion of ISIL, whose fighters captured the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan last month, is causing new concern in a country already grappling with fallout from Syria’s civil war.
While an invasion is unlikely, the country is jittery, and the army has dispatched reinforcements to its 180-kilometre border with Iraq to boost security. Interior Minister Hussein al-Majali told lawmakers last month that the kingdom is “surrounded by extremism.”
Jordan also has a peace agreement with neighbouring Israel. Al- Shalabi said fighting the Jewish state is a priority for the Salafis.