Selasa, 07 Agustus 2007

Ever so slowly, like a spreading cancer, they are taking positions within-and it is legal. They are willing to fight for their beliefs; we take ours for granted and thus the only crack that is needed. While we focus on the terror, they have begun the infiltration. As we spend our resources,energy and effort on reducing terror, they believe they can bankrupt the West, morally, spiritually and emotionally-are we tough enough to survive?

The Islamist Boycott of Jordanian Municipal Elections: A Victory of Public Relations or Politics?

The regional trend is not promising. In Egypt, where government repression of the Muslim Brotherhood is notoriously severe and elections are neither free nor fair, during the 2005 elections the Brotherhood captured 20 percent of parliamentary seats and control of 70 percent of all the districts in which they competed. In Jordan, where cooperation rather than confrontation has been the traditional dynamic, last week's municipal elections indicate that the IAF (Islamic Action Front) may no longer be willing to adhere to historical red lines.

Coming so close on the heels of Hamas's takeover of Gaza and the Islamist electoral victory in Turkey, the confrontation between the Jordanian royal palace and Islamists is cause for U.S. concern. Terrorism in the kingdom is on the rise; almost every day, the Jordanian press contains news of ongoing terrorism trials, interdictions of attacks, commutations of death sentences, or new arrests of Islamists in connection to terrorism. At the same time, the IAF appears to be increasingly confident in its political play.

The day after the IAF's withdrawal from the elections, an article in Jordan's paper of record, al-Ghad, stated that the IAF had "exploded a political bomb." In the run-up to the November parliamentary elections, as the IAF weighs the decision to boycott, shockwaves from this bomb will continue to reverberate throughout the kingdom. Meanwhile, King Abdullah faces what appears to be the unpalatable risk of either accepting a more potent Islamist political opposition or having a surface monopoly on power that encourages even more underground Islamist activity in the kingdom.

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar