Between Exclusivism and Inclusivism: The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood’s Divided Reponses to the “Arab Spring”

Abstract

This article focuses on how and why some Jordanian Muslim Brothers have engaged in relatively exclusive, Islamist ways of confronting the regime during the “Arab Spring,” while others adopted a more inclusive, national strategy in the same period. As such, this article not only contributes to our knowledge of divisions within the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, but also shows how this can impact Islamist-regime relations in the Arab world. It argues that the organization as a whole initially wanted to exploit the uprisings in the region through a relatively exclusive, Islamist approach to the regime, but that others within the organization disagreed with this method as the “Arab Spring” proved mostly unsuccessful. Aware of the dangers of provoking the state from a position of increased isolation, these members advocated a more inclusive attitude toward the regime and others. While both groups were ultimately unsuccessful, the latter at least survived as a legal entity, while the Muslim Brotherhood lost its official presence in the kingdom because the regime was able to exploit the existing divisions within the organization.

Kuratierte Öffentlichkeit

“…Sie sind die stärkste Oppositionspartei und waren insbesondere in den 1990ern einflussreich (Dieterich in Ende/Steinbach 2005: 523). Zuletzt haben sie jedoch an Bedeutung verloren (Wagemakers 2020).…”

Wahlrechtsreform in autoritären Regimen: Ungewissheit des Vetospielers in Jordanien

“…In addition to domestic reasons, the regime's uncertainty is also interlinked to regional and international factors. At the regional level, the electoral victories of Islamist political parties in Morocco, Tunisia and, most significantly, Egypt galvanized the regime's fears of a similar scenario in Jordan (Teti et al 2018;Wagemakers 2020;Yom 2017). The historical relations and ideological affinity between the JMB and their counterparts in Egypt added to such fears (Wagemakers 2019, p. 264), thus increasing the uncertainty of elections under PR.…”

The ‘incomplete’ failure of political Islam: The Justice and Development Party and the Freedom and Justice Party as case studies

“…In this vein, Schwedler and Lynch (2020) highlighted Islamists' structural variations, ideological transformations, and inter-factional competition in response to national and transnational conditions. This operational and structural diversity prompted scholars to reject Islamists' exceptionalism while emphasising their distinct strategies leveraged for political survival especially after their delegitimisation in Arab countries following the 2013 military coup (Brooke 2014;Cavatorta, 2018;Joya, 2018;Kraetzschmar and Saleh, 2018;Sheline, 2020;Stein and Volpi, 2014;Wagemakers, 2020;Yadav, 2020). While al-Nahda and the Moroccan Justice and Development parties developed flexible and conciliatory strategies in compliance with national exigencies for sharing power, the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) witnessed intra-structural and ideological divisions among leaders and rank-andfile members.…”