Global media is reporting that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood has called for the resignation of the labor minister for approving a measure to allow Jordanian women to work in night clubs. According to a German Press Agency report:
Amman – The Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan’s main opposition party, on Monday criticized the government for approving a measure allowing Jordanian women to work at night clubs. The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, said it was seeking the resignation of Labour Minister Samir Murad, who made the decision.
‘The government should apologise to the Jordanian people for such encroachment on Islamic teachings and the nation’s values and traditions,’ said Mohammad Zoyoud, who chairs the party’s national department. Working at night clubs was previously confined to non-Jordanian women, according to local media reports.
Zoyoud charged that the decision to allow Jordanian women to work at the clubs came ‘in response to foreign pressures’.
The IAF is the political action arm of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and earlier posts have reported on what has been described as the crisis within the organization. Generally unreported are the ties between the IAF and the US Muslim Brotherhood. The former IAF caretaker was Ishaq Farhan, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, one of the three founders of the IAF, and a former education minister and senator. Mr. Farhan is also listed as a director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), founded in the U.S. in 1980 by important members of the Global Muslim Brotherhood who wished to promote the “Islamization of Knowledge.” IIIT was associated with the now defunct SAAR Foundation, a network of Islamic organizations located in Northern Virginia that was raided by the Federal government in March 2002 in connection with the financing of terrorism. In 2000, Mr. Farhan was denied entry to the U.S. after having had his visa revoked in the prior year without informing him. The New York Times reported at that time that unidentified American diplomats called Mr. Farhan a “moderating force” and that he “as kept a distance from the vociferous opposition to peaceful relations with Israel.” However, in 2003 a media report said that the IAF had “declared a jihad in favor of Iraq and Palestine if the US attacks Iraq.” More recently, after congratulating President Obama on his election, the IAF called his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan “a hostile step against the Arab and Islamic worlds. In 2009, the IAF also called Israeli actions in Gaza “the ugliest crime in history.”