FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
ISLAMIST BLASTS JORDAN'S EFFORTS TO TAMP DOWN RADICALISM
Volunteer imams now even recruiting for ISIS during services
Officials in Jordan’s government are trying to take steps to address the fact that half of the nation’s 6,300 mosques have no trained or educated imam, meaning their sermons are being delivered by volunteers whose “extremist messages” include “open expressions of support for terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, and even attempts to recruit fighters to the Islamic State,” according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
But the effort to tamp down the radicalism is meeting with a harsh reaction from an Islamist political analyst who says the regime has no business depriving the congregations of the messages they want to hear.
“”The major efforts by young Minister of Religious Endowments Dr. Wael Arabiyat to strengthen control of the mosques and their preacher pulpits, to restrict Friday prayers to central mosques only, and perhaps even to choose the topics of the sermons from a website designated for this purposes by the ministry all undoubtedly show that the government intends to consider mosques to be dangerous centers for fostering terrorism, violence, and extremism,” wrote Anis Khasawneh, an academic and Islamist political analyst.
His outburst came after a series of events in recent years on the issue.
Concerned about untrained imams and messages that promoted terrorism, the nation’s Ministry of Religious Endowments fired dozens of imams, arrested one for calling on worshippers to help ISIS, and cited several for refusing to lead prayers for Jordanian pilot Juadh Al-Kasasbeh, who was burned alive by ISIS just last year, according to a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute.
To combat such extremism, the regime drew up a plan to reorganize the nation’s “Preaching and Religious Guidance” and empower the agency to “select sermons that are in accordance with events and with the needs of the public and that convey moderate ideas,” the report said.
It also was to address the shortage of preachers, increase oversight, improve training and cut back on the number of mosques where Friday sermons are delivered.
That the efforts have a long road ahead was illustrated recently by the fact that imams ignored orders from Arabiyat to include in prayers “Jordanian security personnel killed in a June 2016 ISIS attack on the Jordan-Syria border.”
A spokesman for Arabiyat’s agency confirmed in the report when officials found out that the prayers for the recently “martyred” victims were overlooked, an investigation was launched that could result in “disciplinary measures against imams found to have refused to follow the minister’s orders.”
Khasawneh said the idea itself is out of line.
“Will the minister of Religious Endowments lose his job over his decision for uniform Friday sermons?” he wrote on a local website.
“The decision by the minister of religious endowments for uniform Friday sermons and to consolidate Friday prayers in a limited number of mosques is provocative, burdens the citizens, and makes it difficult for them to worship,” he added.
He said the move puts the government between “the faithful Muslim and Allah” and likened the decision to “those of dictators and tyrants who fought the religion and did all they could to limit its spread and the role of mosques in dealing with the matters and problems of the ummah…”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/islamist-blasts-jordans-efforts-to-tamp-down-radicalism/#RS0RCuemz6EaZQbZ.99My comments: As long as there is a Koran, their will be the Violence the Koran advocates.
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