In 1999 and in one of the first statements for HM King Abdullah II as the king of Jordan, he declared that Iran imposed a serious threat to other countries in the region. That statement shook the already shaken relationships between Jordan and Iran that time. It even caused some concerns among observers that King Abdullah was not adopting the same balanced neutral policy that his father late King Hussein had follwed. Some even were suprised by the timing of that statement especially with the moderate Muhamad Khatimi leading Iran and with the relative absence of any major Sunni-Shiite conflict that time. Not a long time after the invasion of Iraq, HM King Abdullah II decalred that he is concerned about the formation of a Shiite crescent in the region. To date, those two statements by his majesty are the most controversial statements that he had ever made.
Joe Klein in the August 7- issue of the Time magazine even claimed that the the US Intelligence had learned that "The Jordanians and the Saudis are secretely supporting the insurgency in Iraq". As Jordanian I was really disturbed by this claim although there was nothing to prove it. I really doubt that Jordanians would support any act that causes the death and misery for all Iraqi families regardless of their religion. Kelin suggested that Jordan would hate to see a Shiite movement supported by Iran grow up in Iraq that they're supporting the Sunni-based insurgency to sustain them.
All this leads to an important question, "Is Jordan being threatened by a Shiite movement?"
Shiites are united. They are scattered over only a few countries, and the leadership in united in each country. People follow one spiritual leader unlike Sunnis who lost trust in many of their religious leaders due to the very contradictory and strange Fatwas. Shiites (the religious people at least) follow one leader and respect him to a great extenet. In the last strike against Israel 96% of Shiites supported Hizbullah in what they were doing. Even if one argues that Hizbullah is an extremist organization they proved that they are very smart and they play their cards right. They know how to build schools, hospitals, form an economic system and gain the support of the people. Their support among non-Shiite Arabs and Muslims have increased dramatically in the past few years. Briefly, Hizbullah proved that they can form a solid country based on a huge public support and funding form the powerful Shiite nation, Iran.
As most Arabs, nothing wins Jordanians' support more than following God's doctrine or a victory against Israel. Hizbullah, translation for the party of God, have (or claimed to have) achieved both. Arabs still relate all of their problems to either Israel or their leaders' unreligious style of ruling, and if they see any movement that has even a very slight chance of changing such situation they'll go for it. Supporting Hizbullah is not illegal in Jordan but it definitely isn't something that the government likes to see. The government arrested some of its members in 2001 after an attempt to smuggle weapons across the border to Israel. That time Hasan Nasrallah openly criticized the Jordanian government for these arrests and asked the government to adopt the military option.
Jordanians who support Hizbullah do not necessarily oppose the Jordanian government itself or the king and they probably are not looking for a party formed on a religious basis to which no Jordanian belongs to rule them. It's almost certain that the support for Hizbullah wouldn't be as huge as it is now if we had Hizbullah shooting rockets from Amman with Israel firing rockets back at Jordanian cities, but people just like the taste of the virtual victory against Israel.
Among all that, it's difficult to figure out if people are willing to die for their countries more than they're willing to live for them. We hear that Hizbullah is a "state inside another state" referring to Lebanon, but I believe that Hizbullah itself is a state among all other Arab states including Jordan. It has a leader, a goal, its own agenda, its own friends and enemies, and based on that it cannot be dealt with a one exremist organization. I don't think it's causing any threat to any country in the region more than any country is threatining the other countries.
One last thing, I hope Klein was hallucinating.
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This is the only threat to Jordan, that begets revenge attacks that harm Jordanian lives and property. You can thank our government for it. This has been the ultimate source of instability in Jordan. So much for accusing Hizbouallah of "adventures" when our govrernment plays Russian ROllet with our lives and our security, and for whom? for Bush? the man who said he will take the fight to the enemy, to keep america safe. The enemy is Jordan? Must more Jordanians die because we do America's dirty work?
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/jor-240706-action-eng
"Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, Jordan seems to have become a central hub in the global complex of secret detention centres operated in coordination with foreign intelligence agencies as part of the “war on terror”. At least 10 of the individuals tortured or otherwise ill-treated appear to be victims of the US-led "rendition” programme. "
"unlike Sunnis who lost trust in many of their religious leaders due to the very contradictory and strange Fatwas"
Who are you to decide whether a fatwa is contradictory or not ? when you study religion , or at least arabic for at least 30 years , then you can open your mouth and debate.
But now you don't have the right
Strange???? what's stranger than the Catholic church prohibiting the use of condoms.
How about you make ur own religion and make your own fatwas
Thank you hareega for good post.
"then you can open your mouth and debate."
Go screw yourself. You can study religion for 1000 years and you are worth nothing to me. I make my own mind and I decide what I want and I take full resposnibiliy for my decisions. YOU can go and shove your fatwa where the sun don's shine. Sunni islam has no Saints and has not hirarchy and NO ONE on this earth, espicilly not some moronic shiekh who has no expereince in life and who has spent all his life locked in a mousqu memorizing religious books, no such person has the right to tell me anything. So listen to me you idiot, you can study religion all your life, but all you can offer is YOUR WORTHLESS OPINION.
the same applies to ALL other religous leaders you moron.we haven't heard those nagging people complain about even worse rulings in other religions , why is it islam that always has to suffer from those illiterate people who don't even know how to read the quran.
Coming to another point about issuing fatwas , there is a hadith that says
"the ruler will be rewarded twice, if he was right in his juristic reasoning, where as he will be rewarded once, if he was wrong in his juristic reasoning."
It's true that there've been some irregular fatwas , but this doesn;t make the person idiot or untrustable anymore.
What's even more stupid , is how you UNIVERSALLY accuse all sheikhs of being morons and sticked to mosques , without a proof , in fact , why would people listen to a sheihk who doesn't interact with the people of the community !!!! what a worthless and contemptible person you are !!!
I did enjoy reading this blog , you had great opinions on topics , but i have a question , how would you feel if someone wrote "christians lost trust in many of their religious leaders due to the very contradictory and strange rulings they have issued"?????
"is how you UNIVERSALLY accuse all sheikhs of being morons and sticked to mosques , without a proof "
It's your personsal decision to listen to whatever shiek you wish. But do not you EVER try to SHOVE your shieks and fatwas down my throat. I am appauled by your sickning rudeness. When you tell someone:
"when you study religion , or at least arabic for at least 30 years , then you can open your mouth "
Then I will tell you to shove my boot down your throat you arrogent sick bastard. I may not agree with Hareega but you have no right to try to silence anyone's religious opinions on grounds they don't know more than your moronic shieks. It's I who will be judged for MY decions and beliefs and NOT YOU OR YOUR SHIEK. So I and Hafreega will decide what we belive in and what we don't and we will accept full responsiblity for our decision. and if you ever meet me in real life and say the same things to me that you wrote to Hareega, I will make sure you to teach you some manners.
too many anonymous people to reply to, please at leats give youself a fake name so i can reply to you
to anonymous2 who was angered by my comment. It's not my coment but the truth that is enraging you. IT's a fact that most sheikhs have contradictory comments when it comes to politics. Take elections for example, some of them even come up with fatwas to elect a certain leaderlike Ali Abdalla Saleh, or let's just keep it in Jordan where Mufti El Mamlakeh made a fatwah that Jordaians should vote while the sheikhs in Islamic brotherhood boycotted the elections.
I can go on with examples, seriously do you want me to?
The church also messed up politics when it had more authority and that's why it was isolated from the political decision in most countries. They call these countries the developed world.
Wake up!
To the last anonymosu who aksed (and please get a name)
" How would you feel if someone wrote "christians lost trust in many of their religious leaders due to the very contradictory and strange rulings they have issued"????? "
I myself lost trust in the church being able to handel any political issue. I don't want them to. Same thing applies to sheikhs when they make fatwas about politics. Religious people-regardless of religion- (not necessarily religion) usually contribute to wars more than they contribute to solving them.
If someone gets involved in politics s/he should be always questionend by the people whose lives are affected by his contribution, and if they messed up they should be punished. Just the fact that they are religious men does not exempt them from such responsibility. They are men and not God.
Nobody from outside is interested or is a threat to Jordan. Why should they? Jordan is one of the less important states in the Middle East. Its only asset is the king who flies around pretending he is an important statesman. It mainly tags along behind Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
To Anonymous 2:
"you have no right to try to silence anyone's religious opinions on grounds they don't know more than your moronic sheiks"
keef your moronic sheiks , who told you that I follow any of those "moronic sheiks" , I myself think that some fatwas need revision .I did not say that you have to accept every fatwa from any sheikh whether you like it or not. I said that just because a number of sheikhs strived and issued a fatwa that MIGHT be incorrect, doesn't make ALL sheiks contradictory, illiterate and untreatable.
The argument that you and others are coming with is nonsensical, it's like an arts student enters a last year PhD engineering class and starts to blindly deny anything he doesn't like!!!
You want to argue about a fatwa, fine, tell us what proof you have, and the issue rulers can openly discuss it with you. Every sheikh has a website, email and a phone number that you can very easily reach.
Everybody thinks that sheikhs are machines that memorize books; they don't have brains to think or react to the situation, that's wrong. In fact the pressure put on a fatwa ruler is much greater than that put onto a doctor or a physicist, that's why the prophet said he still will be rewarded.
A more practical example, lets say someone was sick, and he went to an inexperienced doctor and the doctor made his best to cure him but he wasn’t cured. Now, if that patient went to a newspaper and wrote about doctors being inexperienced and very contradictory and suspicious or even wrote that the doctor did that on purpose.....what will ur reaction be?
"tell us what proof you have,"
I will not tell you anything. Who are YOU to make demands you ignoramous arriogant fool. You and your examples apply to you and YOU ALONE. Your rules and your stupid analagies and dump examples make sense to you but don't make sense to me. So here is a tip moron, do not assume that just because you think you are smart that I think you are smart too. Islam is about faith not about surgery and a Muslims does not need a license from the Muslim Bar Association. So don't pontificate to people who don't think much of your manners and your offensive way of debating. If anything, you are a disgrace to Islam, the sort that turns off even people who are suppose to be on your side. MORON!
Anonymous 2 , you are a narrow-minded bastard . you keep on insulting others and beating around the bush because you don't have any point , a typical worthless person.
I don't see any difference between you and those morons you're talking about , i don't know how the hell on earth you considered me to be one of them ,what makes you think this , is it because i don't agree with you in denying the fatwas about lebanon war,... ? kaman eshway ra7 itkaffirni
anywayz,Since you lack the tools and respect of debating , I'm going to leave this discussion.
sorry hareega.
Salam
Hareega,
On a totally different subject , you have been tagged by me , check it out on my blog , you can answer or decline :).
Ok there are no morons and bastards here, let's calm down a bit. It's better to disucss ideas rationally and refrain from personal atacks.
tealover, thanx for the tag but the last time i was involved in a tag the planet exploded, so i avoided tags since then, sorry but thanx again for the tag.
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