Sunday, May 7, 2017

Jordan: Thousands of citizens support ISIS

A series of terror incidents in Jordan, carried out by Jordanian citizens identifying with ISIS is causing Jordanians and causing them to wonder how they should relate to the country's extremists, MEMRI reported.
 
Adding to the worries is the fact that many young Jordanians have joined groups - mainly ISIS but not only - fighting in Syria and Iraq.
 
MEMRI researchers presented a series of quotes culled from Jordanian media, showing the country's concern over the government's lax attitude towards ISIS' growing popularity.
 
Among those quoted is Jumana Renimaat, editor of Jordan's Al-Rad daily newspaper, who wrote an article stating there are many "Takfiri" terror cells in Jordan and calling on Jordanians to fight the extremism by creating an ideological and moral reform.
"Takfiri" is a term for Muslims who accuse other Muslims of apostasy.
 
According to Renimaat, "The Takfiri ideology presents real and clearly visible dangers to Jordan... IN all honestly, these are not 'sleeper cells,' as we like to call them. Instead, they are 'active cells,' which think up and plan terror on a constant basis. They want to murder, and to destroy our society on an ideological and moral level."
 
"This is a growing danger, and it is well known. But the worst thing is that we are dealing with it using conventional measures, which are often soft-handed or weak. Jordan has passed its test this time, too, but we should remember that 2016 saw more than one terror incident.
 
"There are no promises that such incidents will not happen again, especially since polls show hundreds of thousands of Jordanians support extremism without even being aware of it.
 
"We must begin the long process of ideological and moral reform."