German media is reporting that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting an upcoming Muslim unity conference in Iran in protest over Iran’s support of the Syrian regime. According to the report:
2 January 2012, 19:21 (GMT+04:00) Jordan’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) said Monday it would boycott an upcoming meeting in Tehran, in protest at Iran’s support of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad and its violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists, dpa reported. The conference, scheduled for later in January, is designed to spur dialogue among various schools of Islamic thought, according to an IAF statement. The IAF – the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement – had received an invitation to the meeting from the Iranian embassy in Amman. “It is a principled attitude by the Islamic movement in Jordan to boycott all meetings called by the Iranian government, as an expression of protest of Iran’s backing for the Syrian regime in in dealing with the Syrian uprising,” the statement said.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF) is generally considered to be the political wing of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. One of the most important leaders of the IAF is 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 reportedat 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.”