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Will Amman's Polite Opposition Bring Arab Spring to Jordan?

The Islamic Action Front was able to gather tens of thousands of people in Amman to call for a boycott of the upcoming legislative elections, posing the most serious challenge to King Abdullah's agenda in nearly two years. But the protesters hold diverse concerns, and determining the future weight of the discontent is a tricky matter.
Protesters from the Islamic Action Front and other opposition parties are reflected in a helmet during a demonstration demanding political reforms, in Amman October 5, 2012. Thousands of Jordanian Islamist supporters marched on Friday in the largest demonstration since Arab Spring-inspired protests erupted last year, calling on King Abdullah to accelerate democratic reforms. The "Friday to Rescue the Nation" rally was called by the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition party, to push for their demands

It was hyped first as the opening salvo of Jordan's Arab Spring, then derided for failing to flex much of an opposition muscle. What is certain: on Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), was able to gather tens of thousands of people in downtown Amman to call for a boycott of upcoming legislative elections, constituting the most serious challenge to King Abdullah's agenda in 22 months of weekly protests throughout the country.

Determining the weight of the show of discontent is a trickier matter. The gathering followed a peculiarly Jordanian etiquette: a potentially destabilizing loyalist counterprotest was suspended at the last minute, while protest organizers exercised careful message control over their chants, which prodded the king for constitutional reform rather than revolution. Borrowing the Syrian sing-song chant of “Get out, Bashar,” which cursed the president and called his brother a traitor, Jordan's protesters substituted more polite lyrics calling for King Abdullah to respond to their requests for changes to the elections law.

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