Brotherhood complains against old guard plans to mark 70th anniversary

AMMAN — The newly licensed Muslim Brotherhood on Monday filed a complaint at the Amman governor’s office in objection against a planned festival to be organised by the old group that they say is now “illegal”.

The old guard, headed by Hammam Saeed, said preparations are under way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the movement’s establishment in Jordan.

According to Muath Khawaldeh, the group’s spokesperson, the festival will be held on May 1, and the date was set before the registration of the “so-called new Muslim Brotherhood Association”.

The licensed group regards the decision to go ahead with the festival as “a challenge”, according to Abdul Majeed Thneibat, who sought and succeeded in separating the Jordanian branch of the Brotherhood from its Egypt-based mother group after decades of presence in that capacity. 

“After obtaining the licence, we are the only legal body representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and that group has no right to conduct activities,” Thneibat told The Jordan Times.

“This is impersonation,” he charged.

But for Khawaldeh, the Brotherhood is an ideology.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is an ideology that has its followers… it is part of the fabric of Jordanian society and this will not change,” he told The Jordan Times, claiming that the newly established association will not succeed in changing this.

The old Muslim Brotherhood was licensed in 1946 as a charity affiliated with the mother group in Egypt and relicensed in 1953 as an Islamic society.