‘Failure to address society woes may leave some sympathetic with terrorists’

AMMAN — On YouTube, an elderly man from Karak, which was targeted by terror attacks last month, ending with the death of 11 security men and three civilians, said: "We lost on both sides: We lost our children who were shot by terrorists and we lost our children as victims to terrorist ideology."

His sentiments were echoed by another man from the city as two of the four terrorists who took shelter in the town’s ancient castle were from the southern governorate, around 150km south of Amman.

The other two were brothers from a village near the city of Salt, northwest of Amman.

Reports and videos from the scene highlighted a courageous reaction by residents of the city who wanted to fight the terrorists, even after the arrival of special forces. 

And in the aftermath of the incident, tribes to which the four terrorists belonged issued statements condemning their sons’ acts, especially after Daesh reportedly claimed responsibility for the crimes. 

Despite such assuring attitudes against terrorism at the grassroots level, the question surfaced of whether Jordan, especially in peripheral areas, offered a social incubator to terrorists.

Analysts quoted or interviewed by The Jordan Times differed on how deep extremism and the willingness to harbour terrorists are in Jordanian society.

However, they all agree that the absence of opportunity and social justice contributes not only to the making of a terrorist, but also to creating a state of either support or sympathy for extremists in local communities.

In an article published in an Iraqi daily following the Karak incidents, veteran journalist Hazem Mubaideen, who is originally from Karak, said that Daesh’s appearance in the south and the terror acts they perpetrated there “came as no surprise”, because extremists are there in Jordan as a “byproduct of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology at a time when the leaders of Jihadi Salafism are free to talk to the media…”.

Secretary General of the National Congress Party Rheil Gharaibeh, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader who left the organisation and took a more moderate approach as a politician, agreed with Mubaideen but refused to deal with the issue as a phenomenon.

“Although the margin might be narrow, social incubators [of terrorists] are there and might expand," he said, citing the possibility of a continued spillover of the extremist ideology from neighbouring countries.

“Jordan has been intellectually infiltrated,” he said, “pushing youth off course, to give up their dreams and goals and join terror groups”, he told The Jordan Times.

Director of the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies Musa Shteiwi highlighted a situation where no other ideologies can counter religious extremism, and so, extremism can take deeper roots in society.

He accused political Islam advocates of being “sponsors of the ideology under the pretext of defending Islam”.

Writer and researcher Mohammad Masharqa rejects the theory that terrorists can be incubated in local communities. However, he agrees that communities suffering from poverty and lack of a decent living for individuals might end up sympathising with extremists to an extent that they might become part of it.

“The failure of the modern Arab state to deal with poverty, education reform, development and creating a sense of citizenship renders it vulnerable to the Daesh virus,” according to Masharqa. 

“In general, the majority of Jordanians stand behind security agencies in the fight against terror, especially in light of what has happened in Iraq and Syria, and extremists are being seen as antagonists of the society here,” the scholar told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Columnist Ibrahim Gharaibeh, an expert on Islamist movements, said there is no social incubator for terrorism, yet an ideological one does exist, nurtured in an environment where poverty, lack of social justice or opportunity and marginalisation of underprivileged groups play in the hands of Daesh recruiters and their likes. 

Gharaibeh said that society in Jordan is generally religious, and such a feature can be easily manipulated when other factors are in play. 

“Youth who join extremists do that as a way to show their anger and frustration. Back in my day, we used to show rebellion and anger by joining the leftist opposition,” he said.

However, Gharaibeh said the case of Jordan, despite what has happened, is not that desperate. He considered the current situation as “easier to rectify than that of our surrounding nations”, where largely sectarian wars are still raging.

However, Daesh, even if defeated, will not be the last enemy driven by terrorist motives, the analyst said. “We will see another wave with a different face and name unless we address the social and economic root causes that push people to extremism.”

To address the extremism threat, all agree that swift and inclusive measures should be adopted to dry up the sources of extremism and treat its causes.

Rheil Gharaibeh, for example, highlighted the importance of adopting a national strategy that includes all segments of the Jordanian society, and establishing the concept of comprehensive security (social, economic, educational and ideological) in order to counter the extremist approach. 

According to Shteiwi, countering extremism is a war fought on many fronts, starting with the security response and ending with implementing a clear and inclusive political strategy, within the framework of a modern civil state. 

“We either go for that or remain hostage to our fear of extremists,” he concluded.