Le Monde Diplomatique, June 2026 Excerpts “The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood’s capacity to mobilise support has prompted the regime to outlaw it. “We only read the Quran and talk about religion, never politics.’ The weekly meetings remain legal as long as participants avoid claiming that ‘Islam is the solution’ to the crises facing the country,” the 50-something mother explained. “ This was one of the first slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), founded in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Saying it now would constitute a crime in Jordan.” “The Jordanian branch of the Brotherhood was dissolved in 2020, although it was able to continue some of its social activities. But on 23 April 2025, after the arrest of 16 people accused of planning an attack on Jordanian soil, it was banned outright and its assets confiscated, within less than ten days and without any form of trial. “The ban was officially imposed to protect the kingdom’s security. But Assem al-Omari, ...
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51