Jordan’s authorisation of a breakaway wing of the Muslim Brotherhood has sent tensions soaring between the decades-old organisation and the government, accused of exploiting the rift to weaken the kingdom’s main opposition force.
In early March, the government gave its consent to the formation of the splinter Brotherhood group, led by a former head of the movement.
The offshoot aims to severe ties with the Brotherhood’s arm in Egypt, where hundreds of supporters have been killed and thousands detained since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the army in 2013.
Analysts say Jordan’s recognition of the new group — known as the Muslim Brotherhood Association — risks fanning discontent among the traditional opposition power base at a time when the kingdom is battling jihadists in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.
“The authorities have given themselves a real dilemma by focusing on a small group without political weight or popularity,” said political analyst Mohamed Abu Romman.
Jordan joined the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria last year and enjoyed a groundswell of public support for air raids on the jihadists after one of its captured pilots was burned alive in January.
Amman has already arrested and imprisoned dozens of would-be fighters trying to enter Syria and there are fears that its foreign air wars could lead to blowback at home.
Abu Romman warned that Jordan’s acceptance of a new Brotherhood group risked the “radicalisation” of existing Islamist outfits.
The political arm of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Action Front, has long been tolerated by authorities in Amman and makes up the strongest opposition group in parliament.
But the group accuses the government of seeking to sow discord among Brotherhood supporters by adopting a deliberately murky legal approach to its activities.
“It seems to me that their intentions aren’t good,” Brotherhood spokesman Badi al-Rafaia told AFP. “We only hope that the state isn’t seeking a confrontation.”
