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Jamal Nasrallah / EPA
Thousands of people gather for a demonstration in Amman, Jordan, Friday.
Thousands of people took to the streets in Jordan’s capital Amman on Friday, calling for political reform.
Jordan's King Abdullah on Thursday dissolved the country's pro-government, rubber-stamp parliament, a constitutional move to pave the way for elections expected early next year.
The Islamic Action Front -- Jordan's wing of the Muslim Brotherhood -- and a coalition of tribal and other Islamist groups are pressing the monarch to speed up what they consider to be the slow pace of reform.
A conservative government led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Tarawneh passed an electoral law last July that has angered the country's main Islamist opposition, prompting it to say it will boycott upcoming elections unless its demands for wider representation are met.
Native Jordanians
The electoral law keeps intact a system that marginalizes the representation of Jordanians of Palestinian origin, on whom Islamists rely on for their support, in favor of native Jordanians who keep a tight grip on power and are the backbone of the powerful security forces.
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Demonstrators at Friday’s protests chanted, “The people want to reform the regime,” according to BBC News, which estimated the crowd at about 10,000.
Al-Jazeera said witnesses and journalists put the crowd at between 10,000 to 15,000. It reported that a demonstration in support of the king had been cancelled in case it led to an outbreak of unrest.
NBC's Jim Maceda answers questions about the Mideast protests
The royal decree dissolving parliament, which was carried by state media, did not mention a date for the election that will decide the makeup of the 120-member lower house of parliament.
King Abdullah has repeatedly said he wants elections to be held later this year or at the latest early next year.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Arab Winter is upon us.
Yep, and civil unrest doesn't even initially have to be religiously motivated for it to eventually take on a religious tone. Time and time again over the last 30 years we've seen secular movements transformed into Islamist movements - Chechnya, Lebanon, Kashmir, the Palestinian Territories...one could go on...Kosovo...
...these were all nationalistic struggles in the beginning having nothing to do with Islam whatsoever. Eventually though, because the Islamists are the dominant force in these societies, the uprisings took on an Islamist character. The same pattern is developing - or unraveling, rather - in Libya, Egypt and Syria right now. One need only look at the daily reports of sucide and car bombs going off in Damascus to understand the religious nature of that conflict - even if it wasn't originally religious in nature.
Undoubtedly there are many in the Middle East who genuinely want a Western style of democracy, but, clearly, the Islamists are better funded, better organized, and better at attracting people willing to die and/or kill for a cause. The waif, middle-brow, people-of-the-world democratic movements just can't inspire that kind of devotion. They just can't. They've lost time and time again in the last 30 years. We would do well to look at these "democratic" protests with suspicion. Not because there aren't people who want democracy in the Islamic world, but because in times of instability the NEXT strongest element in society is the one that takes over. In the Middle East, the next strongest element in society is NOT the Western, democratic one.
Imagine that! Another muslim brotherhood government coming to be ... under the false pretext of "elections." The world is in trouble.
Hide the women and children. If we stop supporting all these hostile takeovers they won't happen. Someone needs to release the truth of who is involved. Let the chips fall where ever they may. Most don't understand this is not possible without powerful, and rich allies.
Jordan- part of ancient palistine was carved out of 80% of the Jewish Mandate by Britan to appease palestinian arabs and their minority Hashemite overlords. Oh yah, then they made the place jew-free. By doing so it serves as a "Homeland for the arabs" : the palestinian arabs who in fact are more "native" than the Hashemites from Arabia. What weird to us Americans to wrap our heads around is that apart from the Jews who have been there for 3000+ years the arabs came from Arabia. Now Its just another spot for the Brotherhood to take over just like they did in Hamastan (the former Gaza), Egypt and lets not forget Syria.
Jordan is that special place on earth where Palestinian Arabs East of the Jordan can keep Palestinians Arabs that fled Arab sponsored war 62 years ago from West of the Jordan in perpetual prison camps and blame it on Israel. What are they going to do with the Syriac Palestinians (the largest refugee flood since the turn of the Century) that are flooding in from the north? When they are done killing each other over THIS they will wage war on Israel before returning to the business of killing each other.
Nothing is ancient anymore. It is the here and now we have to deal with. Screw history, it"s just old news.
If you screw history then you are just going to repeat the same mistakes.
The next Arab state to fall to the Muslim Brotherhood. This does not bode well for democracy, freedom or liberty.
Procrustes, to the Islamist run states in the region those are dangerous and alien concepts that interfere with their hold on power.
Once again an opening for Iran,this time through the Moslem Bortherhood wing in Jordan.Just one more reason to do everything possible to pull down the regime in Tehran.