Islamist party dismisses two ‘doves’

AMMAN — The Islamic Action Front (IAF) dismissed two of its veteran members without prior notice or explanation of the reason for this move, it was announced.

One of the two outgoing leaders, Ghaith Qudah, is a founding member of IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group.  

The other is Saed Al Athem and both belong to the Tlaa Al Ali branch of the Islamist party.

Qudah told The Jordan Times that the party issued a statement announcing it had terminated his membership before “notifying us or even mentioning our names”.

The statement was followed by a notice to Qudah and Athem, who issued a joint statement slamming the IAF for the “arbitrary” decision.

“The notice does not include the reason for revoking our membership and without referring us to the internal court within the party. This is unprecedented,” Qudah told The Jordan Times over the phone.

However, he noted that the reason might be because both Qudah and the other dismissed member were talking in more than one place about their intention to resign their IAF membership.

“The IAF is the only party in the world that dismisses members for their mere intentions,” they said in the statement.

Despite the several attempts by The Jordan Times to call Murad Adaileh, the IAF spokesperson, he was not available for comment.

A total of 28 of the IAF key members “walked out” of the party last month.

All were members in the newly licensed Muslim Brotherhood Society, founded by Abdul Majeed Thneibat, a former overall leader of the mother group. 

Jamil Dheisat, spokesperson of the society, said: “We withdrew instead of resigning, as the resignation requires the approval of the executive bureau.”

The defectors are expected to form a new political party, along with other Islamists known as “doves”, including participants in the so-called Zamzam Initiative.

“Work is under way to found this party that will not be restricted to any ideology,” Dheisat told The Jordan Times.

Zamzam is a moderate socio-political movement launched in 2012 by the liberal wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and has attracted other members from the broader political spectrum.