In a recent interview on Jordanian TV, Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leader Hamza Mansour appeared quite reluctant to condemn ISIS as a terrorist organization. According to a MEMRI translation of the interview:
February 5, 2015 In a recent Jordanian TV interview, Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leader Hamza Mansour refused to condemn ISIS as a terrorist organization. Asked repeatedly by the interviewer if ISIS was terrorist, Mansour, leader of the Islamic Action Front, the political branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Jordan, evaded the question, until the interviewer finally left it up to the viewers to draw their own conclusions.
Following is an excerpt from the interview, which aired on JoSat TV on February 2, 2015.
Interviewer: Is ISIS a terrorist organization?
Hamza Mansour: Ahhhh… There are many terrorists.
Interviewer: Is ISIS a terrorist organization?
Hamza Mansour: There are many terrorists.
Interviewer: My question is clear, Sheik Hamza. Is ISIS a terrorist organization or not?
Hamza Mansour: Let me answer in my own words. We condemn every terrorist group, government, or regime.
Interviewer: Is ISIS a terrorist organization?
Hamza Mansour: There are terrorists of every sort – Sunnis, Shiites, Muslims, Christians, Jews…
Read the rest here.
It should be noted that only a short time later, ISIS released video of the group burning alive a captured Jordanian pilot held by the group.
In May 2014, we reported that the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, charged with the UK investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, had met in Jordan with leaders of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. In April 2014, we reported that the Jordanian Brotherhood had called on UK Prime Minister David Cameron to stop his investigation into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK.
Other GMBDW reporting on the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood has included:
- In April 2014 we reported that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood had expelled three senior members for trying to initiate reforms.
- In September 2013, we reported that the King of Jordan had said that the political arm of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is part of the political life of his country.
- At the end of August 2013, the GMBDW reported that the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood was boycotting municipal elections.
- At the end of July 2013, the GMBDW reported that the leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood had delivered speeches in which he called peace negotiations with Israel “a heresy, according to Islamic law” and that Palestine is “the graveyard of the Jews.”
- In April 2013, the GMBDW reported that a leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood had rejected agreements signed by the country’s king and the Israeli government and that leaders of the Brotherhood wold not meet U.S. officials.
- In July 2012, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood was involved in the cancellation of a scheduled attendance by a Jordanian delegation to an educational conference being held in Israel.
- In June 2012, the head of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood called the arrival of the latest convoy in Gaza “a new page of the Jihad against the occupation of the Palestinian territories. In May 2012, the Jordanian Brotherhood elected a new leader, described as a “hardliner.”
For extremist statements made by the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, go here.
