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The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan
The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is known worldwide as a modernist Islamic group. This positive description was gained through the political partnership between the Regime, Governments and the Muslim Brotherhood to build the Jordanian social system.

Most researchers refer for the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan to the date of 19 November 1945 by Abd Al-Atif Abi Kurah, who was in contact with Hassan al-Banna since 1943 on the basis of organising Jihad in Palestine. Abduah Mustfa Dusoai (2011), in his article “The History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan”, reveals that in 1945, Abd Al-hakim Abdi, made a visit to Jordan and was allowed by King Abdullah I in full cooperation with Abi Kurah to establish the association of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood in November of that year. Their main achievements were the establishment of the Islamic Scientific College and the creation of a military wing comprising of 120 men called Abu Aubidah troops to participate in the 1948 war against Israel. Shmuel Bar (1998:16-17), explains that in this period the Brotherhood was able to set out their 1948 constitution which identifies the movement’s religious, political and social goals as follows :

•	To preach the doctrines of the Quran. •	To bring Muslim individuals and groups together by familiarising them with the principles of the Quran. •	To develop, protect and liberate the national wealth and raise the standard of living. •	To realise social justice, combat poverty, disease, and ignorance. •	To restore Palestine and liberate the Nile Valley, the Arab countries and the Muslim countries from any foreign powers, assist Muslim minorities, support the unity of Muslims, and work for Islamic federation. •	To work for the creation of the righteous state, which will implement Islamic doctrines and teachings internally and propagate them abroad. •	To support international cooperation and to participate in the consolidation of peace and human civilisation.

In 1953, Muhammad Abdu al-Rhman was chosen as Supreme Guide for the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. He contributed to creating a basic system to organise the movement; furthermore, he united the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood with the Jordanian wing and published Al-Kifahh magazine. Muhammad Abdu Al-Kader Abu Fares (2000: 11), in his book “Papers from the Political History of the Muslim Brotherhood” claimed that, in 1954, they declared their principles in Jordan as follows: •	Jordan is part of the Islamic World. •	The Muslim Brotherhood does not accept any system not standing on Islamic basis. •	The Brotherhood will not support any regime or system that does not apply the legislation of Allah. •	The Muslim Brotherhood is part of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. •	The Brotherhoods are looking at the Palestinian case as an Islamic case and they will prepare all their financial and spiritual capacities to liberate Palestine from the global Judaism and international crusade.

Mashari Al- Zaydi (2005), in his article “History of Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood”, argues that during 1954-1958, the Brotherhood was against colonisation and General Glubb Pasha. They fought against the Eisenhower principle to fill the space in the Middle East. They also protested against bringing British soldiers to the country in 1958. In 1956, the Muslim Brotherhood started to participate in parliamentary elections and four out of five candidates designated by the Brotherhood were elected to Parliament. Their main agenda items were to fight corruption and to stand against the Jordanian festivals that organised events not acceptable to the religion’s rules that started to flourish at the time, such as ice-skating and dancing parties. This led to the jailing of several members of the Brotherhood including the supreme guide for six months. This limit to the agenda affected their participation in parliamentary elections of 1963, when only two members of the Muslim Brotherhood were elected, but they were effective in establishing the Assembly of the Islamic Centre in many cities in Jordan and in addition to the Islamic Hospital, many schools and colleges. It was noticeable in that period that the Islamists influence was not as effective as the leftists’ and the nationalists’ influence. According to Dusoai (2011), in 1967, there was a new rise of Islamism in the region, following the defeat in the 1967 war, which had secular trends and which had generally driven people back to religion. During the war, the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan participated with 180 Jihadists under the leadership of the Fatah movement.

According to Donald Neff (1998:87-88) in “Battle of Karamed Establishes Claim of Palestinian Statehood”, the Islamic rise was growing especially after the winning of the 1968 war that was called ‘Karameh’, dignity, war on 21 of March between Israel army on one side and PLO and the Jordanian Army on the other. The war started by the attack of Israel on the PLO. The Brotherhood joined the PLO and centred their force on the Jordanian side of the Jordanian river which dragged the Jordanian army to intervene. Jordan claimed the return of dignity from the name of the war after the loss of the 1967 war by obliging the Israeli forces to withdraw. PLO, led by faith, was strengthening by their first victory to establish their national claims in statehood. However, the Muslim Brotherhood attributed the win to the religious background of the Brotherhood and the PLO. Therefore, the movement became the central attraction for the youth in Jordan. Here, the Brotherhood focused on implementing Al-Banna’s educational basics and principles in addition to his ‘Call’ preaching methods for new generations of Brotherhoods. They started to organise themselves for their representation in the trade unions, and participated in municipal elections in three cities. Furthermore, they turned their efforts towards a new generation and heavily focused on youth at the universities.

Following these events, on 15 June 198,5 the Muslim Brotherhood held a speech called ‘what the Muslim Brotherhood want’ to clarify their agenda for the next period, Abu Fares (2000:12) claimed that they said: ‘the Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic movement, created after the collapse  of the Islamic caliphate, works to re-establish the Islamic aspects in all sides of  life ... based on  the Islamic Sharia, Jihad as the path to free Palestine, commence the public liberties, not to fight preachers of Islam, to purify media from  all non-Islamic thoughts and ideas,  fight corruption, rewrite the educational books in a way to serve the Islamic Ummah goals and create true  Islamic generations working to free their countries.

However, the Muslim Brotherhood opposed the Camp David Accords. Because of that, they upset the Jordanian regime, which led to the expulsion of many of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood from their jobs especially the university teachers after Intifadas (Terrill, 2008). Ibrahim Garaibah, the specialist on the Jordanian Islamist movement (2003) claims in his article “The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and the Parliamentarian Elections” that this situation continued until 1989, when the regime recommenced political life through parliamentarian elections. The Brotherhood won 22 seats in Parliament and the presidency of Parliament for three years. Thus, their representation in the Parliament led to their participation in the government formed in 1991 with five seats. By 1993, the Muslim Brotherhood took 17 seats in Parliament after the new legislation ‘one man one vote system’, which was tailored to limit the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement in the politics of Jordan. In this period, the Muslim Brotherhood established its political party ‘the Islamic Action Front’ as a way to respond to the Government policy and requests. The IAF participated in the municipalities’ elections where they were successful in gaining many seats in different governorates and cities around the country such as Irbid, Madbah and Sahaab. Dusoai (2011) affirms that in 1994, Abd Al-Majeed Thnibat was elected as a Supreme Guide of the movement. He organised an internal conference to comment on the backwardness of applying democracy in 1996 as a result of the 1994 Peace Treaty between Jordan and Israel. The consequences of the conference had driven them to the conclusion to boycott the 1997 parliamentary elections. Later, in 2003, the Brotherhood again participated strongly in parliamentarian elections, winning 17 seats in parliament after the government’s assurances for free elections. The elections of 2007 resulted in limiting the seats that the movement won six seats only, and the movement claimed that this small number of seats was due to the government’s intentional procedures. Since then, the movement has declared its decision to boycott all the forthcoming elections until further notice. This decision by the movement was fully implemented and adhered to in the 2010 elections.