Jordanian media is reporting that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood has launched preparations to take part in a future government. According to a Jordan Times report:
The Jordan Times: “AMMAN — The Islamist movement has launched preparations to take part in a future government, as the Islamic Action Front (IAF) considers sweeping internal reforms to strengthen the party ahead of potential elections. In an ordinary IAF Shura Council session late Saturday, Islamist leaders discussed potential measures should the party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, come to power in a government based on a parliamentary majority. During the meeting, party leaders focused on the steps to make the potential transition from an “opposition movement” to a governing party, a transformation that IAF Secretary General Hamzah Mansour warned will be “difficult” for the movement. The IAF’s potential participation in governance would come at a time the Kingdom faces several internal and external challenges in the political, economic and social realms, placing a “heavy responsibility” on the Islamist movement, Mansour noted. “Any political force or political party that takes part or forms a government based on a parliamentary majority will face several challenges,” Mansour told The Jordan Times. “We must be prepared to face these challenges and come up with solutions to them.” According to a source within the movement, the debate comes at a time Islamist leaders have received “positive signs” that decision makers will meet the movement’s preconditions for participating in political life, namely an elections law based on proportional representation and constitutional reforms guaranteeing elected governments and protecting Parliament against dissolution. If the movement’s demands are met, Islamists are prepared to pull its presence from the streets, abandoning the pro-reform movement, and focus its energies on an electoral campaign and a strategy for governance, the source added. “If our reform demands are met it is only natural that we will take part in elections and take part in the government,” Ali Abul Sukkar, IAF Shura Council president, told The Jordan Times. “This is our goal and it always has been.” During Saturday’s session, Islamist leaders also focused on ways to best translate the movement’s slogan “Islam is the solution” into political and economic programmes as the IAF eyes the rise of Islamists to power through the ballot box in countries across the region. “We will study the experiences of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt, the Justice Party in Morocco and Ennahda in Tunisia on how their movements are developing practical solutions in very challenging environments,” Abul Sukkar told The Jordan Times. “Jordanian citizens have several demands and we as a party will have to be prepared to deliver.
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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.”