Grim reminder of the 2005 terror attacks

As Jordanians were commemorating the 10th anniversary of the November 9 terror bombings in Amman, a lone policeman on Monday attacked anti-terror experts at a police training centre in Muwaqqar, east of the capital, killing five trainers and trainees who included Jordanians, Americans and a South African.

While the motives for this attack were still unclear by Monday evening, it was a stark reminder of the events of November 9, 2005, when dozens of Jordanians and their guests lost their lives in coordinated blasts at three Amman hotels.

Ever since then, Jordan’s anti-terrorism efforts were stepped up to prevent a repeat of the events of that dark day in Jordan or anywhere else, helping friends whenever and wherever possible through various means that included offering training, from which many police personnel from Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and other countries have benefited and are now helping save innocent lives around the world.

The fact that one of these training facilities was attacked on Monday, whether by sheer coincidence or shrewd planning — something that will certainly be revealed by investigators — underscores the need to continue this mission and support it with all our means.

As Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania joined fellow Jordanians in commemorating the 2005 attacks and paid tribute to those who lost their lives on that ominous day, very few were praising Monday’s attack, a grim reminder of the daunting challenges facing the anti-terror fight, mainly ones of ideological nature and those having to do with misunderstanding, as well as misrepresentations of reality.

These very few voices, who are a small minority in Jordanian and Arab society, stand out in the crowd because of their oddness, and remind us of similar voices that were raised in 2006, several months after the terror attacks, to praise the mastermind of the blasts, Abu Musab Zarqawi, and describe him as a martyr after he was killed in a US raid in Iraq. These voices did not only breach Jordanian values of tolerance and pluralism, but also constituted an act of sacrilege against the martyrs of terrorism and an offence against their loved ones.

Such a twisted and misleading way of thinking is a main target of the ongoing multi-pronged anti-terror efforts that Jordan is carrying out along with friends and allies around the world.

Such efforts are surely not to the liking of terrorists and their sympathisers, thus requiring our citizens to stay vigilant at all times to safeguard the peace and stability that the country has been enjoying in this regional sea of violence.

Monday’s attack is a reminder, lest we forget, that our peace and security are a target, and a call for all to remain together standing behind our leadership in defending this country and all the good values it stands for.