Rift deepens within Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood

Some believe the government is actively encouraging conflict within the already fractured Brotherhood. They founded their own group, the government-licensed “Muslim Brotherhood Society”, which many believe has the backing of the Jordanian regime in order to undermine the original Muslim Brotherhood, established in 1945. “We consider the government’s transgression regarding the group’s properties to be in the context of an official targeting of the group and of its history and legitimacy,” the Brotherhood said in a statement via email. “They didn’t form a new group or new goals, but only added legal legitimacy to the group in its same name, goals and historical record.” Some members have expressed a desire to remain separate from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in order to win popular support. “The group has to be part of its nation without following another body, or receive directions and orders from an entity outside the country,” Gharaibeh said Mohammad al-Momani, a spokesperson for the Jordanian government, said in April that the government did not allow the Brotherhood to celebrate the organisation’s 70th anniversary because it asked permission under the Society’s name, and he pledged his commitment “to implementing the law strictly”.