Unprecedented rift splits Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood

Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamist organization in the kingdom, is facing the biggest crisis in its 70 years of existence. On Feb. 14, the group’s Shura Council, the highest body in the organization, voted to terminate the membership of 10 leading members, including former overseer Abdul Majid Thuneibat, for “violating the basic law of the group,” creating an internal rift within the Brotherhood.

According to a statement by the organization, “a number of members collected signatures and met with government officials to seek a new license” in the name of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Most of those whose membership was revoked belong to the so-called Zamzam Initiative, a reformist movement within the group that wants to sever the Muslim Brotherhood’s ties to Egypt. Most were threatened with suspension last year for violating the group’s internal laws, but the decision of the Shura Council is final.

In 1953, the group was first registered as a charitable organization with the ministry and formed a political party, the Islamic Action Front, ​in 1992. On Feb. 26, the Cabinet decided to refer the Muslim Brotherhood case and the new application for its licensing to the Ministry of Social Development for evaluation. Anonymous sources told Al-Monitor that the group’s top leadership had requested a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour to discuss the issue of re-licensing, but no date has been set for such a meeting.

Minister of Political Development Khaled al-Kalaldeh was quoted in the media as saying that the government “had no intention to interfere in the current fracture within the group,” but added, “Licensing it as a political body requires that it first disengages from the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Speaking to Al-Monitor later, Kalaldeh refused to comment on the issue, saying only, “The case of the Muslim Brotherhood and its licensing remains unclear.”