AMMAN: Jordan is cracking down on firebrand preachers and online extremism to tackle jihadists after joining US-led air strikes on the Islamic State group.
The desert kingdom shares borders with conflict-hit Iraq and Syria, and is struggling to cope with hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, adding to its own problems with homegrown Islamists.
Its decision in September to join the anti-IS coalition has put Jordan in even graver danger, but authorities insist its borders are secure and have launched a sweep against jihadists that extends to the Internet.
“Jordan is waging a war against jihadist ideology and amended the anti-terrorism law... because the Internet has become the main tool for mobilising and recruiting” militants, said analyst Hasan Abu Haniya.
Since joining the anti-IS fight, “130 IS sympathisers have been arrested, most of them members of Salafist groups,” said defence lawyer Mussa Abdalat, referring to adherents of a strict Sunni interpretation of Islam.
“Only 50 of them have been brought to trial before the state security court... while the rest are still awaiting prosecution,” Abdalat said.
But for those already convicted or facing trials at military tribunals, the charge has often been the same: spreading the ideology of a terrorist group on the Internet.
Wary of Salafists, authorities have also moved to bring some of the country’s nearly 6,000 mosques under tighter control by weeding out preachers who deliver fiery pro-jihadist sermons.
AFP
