Jordan dissolves the Muslim Brotherhood

The Jordanian Court of Cassation, which is the highest judicial authority, has issued a ruling ordering the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood group in the country. This organization, which was born in Egypt in the 1920s, has been expanding throughout the Middle East with the aim of imposing an Islamist agenda with the help of like-minded governments and state actors, such as Turkey and Qatar. 

The Jordanian justice system's decision has come about because it has not "rectified its legal status" under national law, according to an official cited by the Middle East Monitor. According to the publication, the ruling also "ended a long dispute between the group founded in 1945 and a separate group, the Muslim Brotherhood Association," which was legally recognized by the Amman government. The adoption of this order entails the confiscation of the assets belonging to the Brotherhood Group and their surrender to the Association of the same name.

The battle between the Egyptian real estate organization and the Arab country's justice system dates back to 1953, when the original branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, headed by Hammam Saeed, was dissolved. The Court of Cassation has now appealed that "the government's dealings with the Brotherhood do not legitimize the group because it is still an illegal group that was legally dissolved after it failed to rectify its status," analyst Khitam Al Amir told Gulf News. Instead, the Association's activities are allowed because it has never established links with the Egyptian parent group of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned in its home country with the arrival of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in power, who ousted Mohamed Morsi, a loyalist to the Islamist group, from the presidency in a coup.

It should also be recalled at this point that the Muslim Brotherhood is considered a terrorist organisation by its home nation, and by a number of other countries, including Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. In 2019, the debate was also opened in the United States to include it in their list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). In recent years, it has been tentatively penetrating several countries in the Middle East, including North Africa. Their presence is significant, for example, in Sudan, where they supported the regime of former president Omar al-Bashir; in Iraq, where they have an important specific weight in the control of the Sunni region of the country; or in Libya, where they contribute to the campaign of one of the two sides that face in the civil war, opened since 2011, the Government of National Unity (GNA), also supported by Ankara and Doha.

In Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood has become the "largest and oldest Islamic organization in the country, with more than 10,000 members in the country," according to Counter Extremism Project. They operate in the country's political life through the Islamic Action Front (IAF) party, which was established in 1992 with 350 members. Its founders were Ahmed Azaida, Is'haq Farhan and Abdul Latif Arabiyat. It is currently co-directed by Hamman Saeed, who is also the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood Group in the country, and Hamza Mansour. In the 2016 general elections, they won 10 of 130 seats in Parliament, while a dissident faction - also legally recognized - that grouped itself under the name of Zamzan, won five more seats. The political formation, which retains "its central Islamist platform", according to the Counter Extremism Project, has been moderating its discourse in order to gain new followers, a recurrent movement in the Muslim Brotherhood's strategy based on "social clientelism". For example, it included women and Christians in its list of candidates, a strategy that distances itself from any Islamist agenda.

But the recurrent statements of its leaders, in which they defend the conversion of Jordan into "a state within the Muslim Caliphate", have raised the rejection of both the population and the authorities. They have also come to defend, even, terrorist violence with worrying approaches to the terrorist group Daesh.

Moreover, according to analyst Sami Moubayed in European Eye on Radicalization, Jordan had become a breeding ground for the Muslim Brotherhood in the region, which could have been one of the reasons for the Court of Cassation's decision to dissolve the group. The expert says the group has suffered numerous setbacks in recent times that have weakened it in areas of influence that were strategic, such as Sudan, as Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has launched a tough campaign aimed at eradicating the Brotherhood from its territory. Moubayed explains, in this sense, that even Qatar could abandon the organization if it receives in return the reestablishment of relations with its neighbors that form the Arab Quartet, namely Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt, authors of a trade boycott against Doha that has resulted in significant losses.

"The members of the Qatar-based Brotherhood must start looking for a new host and new political cover in the Middle East. Jordan seems a logical alternative, given that it is the only Arab state where they are licensed to operate and still enjoy a considerable power base," the analyst says. The decision of the Jordanian judiciary, for this reason, is a considerable setback to the aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is seeing its influence in the Arab world increasingly diminished. 

The group still has a chance not to be completely wiped off the Jordanian map. Hamza Mansour has announced that they will appeal against the decision of the Court of Cassation: "The Brotherhood is a model of moderation and an important element in strengthening national unity, so dissolving it is not in the national interest," he said, in a statement collected by TRT World. For his part, the organization's spokesman, Moaz al-Khawaldeh, has assured that this will not mean the end of its presence in Jordan: "The Muslim Brotherhood will not disappear due to an administrative failure and we will continue to carry out our activities in other alternative rental properties. A message that is challenging, to say the least.