Backlash in Amman
Jordanians turn anger on Al Qaeda Newlyweds survive, but blast kills dads
AMMAN— He was just another unfamiliar face at a wedding banquet so grand not everyone could possibly know everyone. He blended in. And then, just as the bride and groom stepped toward the threshold of a new life together, he brought death. Whatever the intended results, it is difficult to imagine that the suicide bomber and those who dispatched him envisioned the rising fury yesterday on the streets of the Jordanian capital as the circumstances became known. The backlash was palpable.
There were several prominent names among the 59 overwhelmingly Arab victims of the triple- bomb suicide attack on the tony hotels of Amman. Jordanians by the score were killed, along with at least six Iraqis, two Bahrainis, a Saudi and a Syrian. But no single story wrenched the Arab heart as that of the broken families Alami and Akhras, whose losses are so great they have yet to be fully calculated. The newlyweds, Nadia Alami and Askraf Akhras, survived. But both their fathers were killed, and the groom’s mother was clinging to life last night, still in surgery. At least 10 others in the wedding party died, and dozens more were injured in the single blast at the entrance to the Radisson SAS ballroom. “We’ve been running from hospital to hospital and funeral home to funeral home all day,”
said an exhausted Tahir Alami, the bride’s first cousin.
“ When the bomb went off the first thing I saw was the body of my cousin. I tried to save him with mouth- to- mouth resuscitation but I failed,” he said.
“ Then I looked up and I saw bodies everywhere. I went crazy, running from one to another trying to save someone. It was horrible.
“ I can accept God’s fate. But I can’t accept the way it happened.”
“ The wedding” was on the lips of all Jordanians yesterday, as they emerged from a disquieting morning after, to walk the streets in protest, loudly denouncing the attacks with an unbending message of unity and strength. With flags at half-mast and businesses closed for a national day of mourning, thousands filled the streets in cars, trucks, motorcycles and on foot, waving flags and chanting slogans. And though the demonstrations were interlaced with posters of King Abdullah II, whose proWestern policies rankle many in Jordan, this was not so much a statement of endorsement of the monarchy as it was total rejection of the alternative. By nightfall, the object of rejection had a name, as hundreds of demonstrators intensified their street protests, shouting “ Burn in hell, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.”
Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and long the nemesis of the Jordanian ruling elite, is at this point no more than a suspect in the attacks that shattered the relative tranquility of the Jordanian capital. But yesterday, a Web posting claiming the operation in his name — and in the name of Islam — was enough for many, though the claim could not be independently verified. “These people keep talking about Islam, but they have no religion. They are against life itself,” said Montaha Safi, 43, a travel agent and mother of two.
“ If they want to fight let them go where there is war. It is disgusting.” On the sidewalk outside the Grand Hyatt, a Saudi businessman squatted in concentration as he scratched out a poem of condolence.
Musfir Hadi Rabiya, 40, declined when asked to read the words aloud.
“ The Jordanian people and the victims must be the first to hear this poem,” he told the Toronto Star.
“ Today I saw a groom and he is crying. The pain in my heart is great.” However difficult the coming
days may be for the
royal family, they
shared the moment
viscerally. King Abdullah surveyed the
scenes of the crime,
while Queen Rania
went to hospitals — and wept, at one point, upon seeing a ward of injured children. Abdullah followed up last night with a statement on Jordan Television, his head draped in traditional covering.
Calling for Jordanian unity with “ one hand, one heart,” he told his subjects they should now count themselves as deputies of the security service, duty bound to shoulder the responsibilities of a new vigilance.
Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher confirmed yesterday the arrest of several people in relation to Wednesday’s attacks but declined to elaborate.
It is not known whether the detainees are suspects or merely witnesses.
State- ordered shows of unity may be the norm in the dictatorladen Arab world. But yesterday’s street demonstrations came with too many moments of genuine emotion to be written off as mere show. Though Jordan’s social fault lines include divisions relating to a burgeoning Palestinian population upwards of 50 per cent of its 6.5 million citizens, not a single Palestinian flag was to be seen.
“ There is nothing Palestinian or Jordanian in this land,” said Tahir Alami, the bride’s cousin, despite the fact both families of this marriage hail from Palestine. “ We are all one family. All one heart.” With the angry nationwide denunciations extending even to Zarka, the birthplace of Zarqawi, the temptation is to view Jordanian reaction as a decisive moment, a turning point even. But however real the emotions, it is probably something less. In off- the- record whispers yesterday, some Jordanians described how they chose on this day to contain the other half of their emotional anger — a profound disquiet with American policy in the region as powerful as ever. But this day, they said, the overwhelming need to show solidarity against Wednesday’s attacks required a certain self- censorship.
Sultan al- Hattab, a columnist with Al Ra’I newspaper, was among the few to articulate the point for the record.
“ The truth is that Jordanians feel caught in the middle of two irrational policies,” Hattab told the Star.
“ In the same way George Bush said, ‘ You will be with me or against me,’ Zarqawi is saying, ‘ You will be with me or you will die.’
“ This is a huge blow to a moderate regime like ours. A huge price to pay.
“ Because Jordan always occupied the middle ground, and now there is no more middle ground left.”