‘To address new ideological challenges’

Five Jordanians phoned their families in Salt last week, inviting their brothers to join them in Mosul, where “God’s laws are applied, and the Islamic Sharia doctrines are enforced”, they said.

It is true that the Islamic State pays each fighter nearly $450 monthly, more than the monthly salary of any Syrian or Iraqi or Egyptian soldier, and some other fringe benefits to the wife and children in case of death. 

It is also true that one of the top five leaders of jihadist salafists in Jordan, Abu Mohammed Al Tahawi, announced some days ago total support and allegiance of his followers to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, head of the new Islamic State.

One of Al Qaeda leaders in Maan, Abu Sayyaf Mohammed Al Shalabi, admitted in a press statement that his group lost nearly 1,000 fighters in Syria over the last three years, and 5,000 more are still in Jordan.

All these are strong indicators that the millions of dinars spent from the awqaf budget are wasted since many mosques are recruiting centres for those who join jihadist salafist dogma.

It is not the failure of imams and qadis only, however, but also the failure of school curricula, educators, media programmers, home interaction, as well as of the elite class of intellectuals and opinion makers.

Jordan is strong enough to face all new challenges from Baghdadi and his Islamic State. The Jordanian air force hit IS contingents on June 23, as they drove into the Kingdom through the Turaibil border crossing, which they seized earlier. The jets destroyed four IS armoured personnel carriers that were on the move.

The Jordanian army and security are very well trained to cope with any external threat, be it from terrorist groups or others. But what is needed is to solidify the internal front.

To achieve that objective, there should be a stratagem to mobilise all Islamic activists, including university professors, qadis, teachers of religious studies and imams, who should play a role in combating and filling in the intellectual vacuum which, so far, created thousands of Jordanian fanatics, recruited in mosques, who, due to their economic situation, are receptive to the nihilistic fatwas that allow torture, death and abuse.

It has become evident that the failure of the awqaf and educational system to appropriately carry out their duties created death squads like Daesh, the IS, Al Qaeda, now, and Zarqawi a few years ago.

A new stratagem is required to address new ideological challenges.