Jordan Rules Out Plan To Ban Muslim Brotherhood

A Jordanian minister on Saturday ruled out the possibility that his country would ban the Muslim Brotherhood, or even designate it as a "terrorist" group.



Commenting on the recent arrest of Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Zaki Bani Arshid, Political and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Khaled Al-Kalaldeh said Bani Arshid's arrest was an isolated incident that did not reflect a government drive against the Muslim Brotherhood.



Bani Arshid was arrested on Thursday and accused of spoiling relations with a friendly state.



The Muslim Brotherhood figure wrote against the recent decision of the United Arab Emirates to designate the Brotherhood as a "terrorist" group.



Apart from the Muslim Brotherhood, the United Arab Emirates included 82 organization in a list of "terrorist groups."



Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Murad Adayleh, considered Bani Arshid's arrest as an "insult against the nation" and a bid to silence the opposition in Jordan.



The United Arab Emirates was the third Arab country to designate the Brotherhood as a "terrorist" movement after both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the home of the Islamist movement.



Egypt branded the movement as a "terrorist" group in December of last year following a bombing outside a security headquarters in the Nile Delta.



The movement said it had nothing to do with the bombing, reiterating its peaceful opposition to current Egyptian authorities.



Egypt started a heavy-handed crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood soon after the army ousted elected president Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader himself.



Ahmed Fahim



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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