The political survival of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: from participation to boycott

Hazimeh, Wisam (2015) The political survival of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: from participation to boycott. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the development of relations between the Jordanian Muslim
Brotherhood and Jordanian regime from 1945 to 2010, in which a distinction is made
between the pre- and post-1989 eras that demarked a significant shift from partnership
to crisis. Utilising an historical approach, the first era is defined by both parties’ mutual
pragmatism, establishing a unified understanding of the Palestinian issue, and what the
nature of politics in Jordan would be. However, the post-1989 era is analysed within
the context of the regime’s shift in interests from internal to external issues,
subsequently changing its pragmatic discourse towards the Brotherhood and Islamic
movements. This study suggests that the shift in the regime’s focus, teamed with the
implementation of policies such as the ‘one vote system’ and the peace treaty with
Israel, left a space for radical voices to rise within the Brotherhood. To understand if
the Brotherhood is compatible to Jordan’s parliamentarian system, the research
identifies circles of division within the Brotherhood between Hassan al-Banna and
Sayyid Qutb’s ideologies in the wake of regional conflict and poor regime-Islamist
relations. This bifurcation is exacerbated in Jordan, as seen with the opposing fronts of
the Jordanian Brotherhood’s Shoura Council: Hawks of Palestinian origin vs. Doves of
Jordanian origin, claiming a new division: the ‘new’ Hawks, or, the ‘Salafist
Brotherhood’. Supported by exclusive personal interviews with Brotherhood leaders,
this thesis argues that allowing Islamist movements’ limited political participation in
Jordan is essential for the country’s stability and religious modernity as since the 2007
boycott, increasing numbers of al-Bannaist Doves have converted into Qutbist Hawks.
This has empowered the Hawks to demand fundamental reforms regarding the
monarchy’s existence, initiating the Brotherhood’s final 2010 political boycott, and
positioning the once-allied movement outside the political process and indefinitely
removed from accountability.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Political, Social and International Studies (former - to 2014)
Depositing User:	Jackie Webb
Date Deposited:	04 May 2016 11:57
Last Modified:	04 May 2016 11:57
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/58569
DOI:

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