Abstract

In Jordan, the main regime, as a successful political survival strategy, while skillfully forming a tight pro-regime political coalition all along, has kept an even firmer grip on the political opposition. The political opposition in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood, and its political wing the Islamic Action Front (IAF) being the leading front, sometimes boycotted the elections as a response to or compromised with the regime. This latter approach has also been embraced by the parties which emerged out of the MB, including the National Congress Party and the Muslim Brotherhood Association; however, another splinter party, the Partnership and Rescue Party (PRP) criticized them for their incompetence in acting as a true opposition. This is the juncture this paper problematizes—the IAF seems to have lost its ability to act as the main opposition, and the newly emerged PRP prospectively stands out as the leading candidate to replace it. This paper examines the transformation of the political oppositional block in Jordan and elaborates on its consequences for the MB and the regime–opposition relations. In relation to this, in the conceptual level, the paper also reflects on the relevance of this transformation to the post-Islamism debate: in this instance, the PRP denouncing the political Islamic ideology and positioning itself in the center of the political spectrum while maintaining the claim that it has taken over the main opposition role/legacy of the MB evoke a post-Islamist tendency. The argumentation in the article is built on primary sources, including interviews with the opposition leaders and prominent opposition members.

Highlights

  • After Jordan became an independent state, many opposition groups with various ideologies emerged

  • It was the MB that started to fill the vacuum of political opposition in the country and for the 30 years, the MB that had cooperated with the regime in its struggle against previously mentioned opposition groups between 1950 and 1990 became the biggest opposition in Jordan

  • This study argues that the Islamic Action Front (IAF) has long been faced with a survival problem, has started to lose its position as the main opposition group in the country, and it has been the Partnership and Rescue Party (PRP) among the remaining opposition parties that has been endeavoring to fill the political vacuum through pursuing an inclusionary approach towards the dissident movements of all forms in the country, on one hand, and through embracing an unbending resistance against the regime on the other

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Summary

Introduction

After Jordan became an independent state, many opposition groups with various ideologies emerged. The potential the PRP enjoys for moving into the main opposition role is what this research elaborates on This role is necessary to observe whether PRP’s entrance into the political scene represents a change in broader Islamism in political opposition in Jordan, as the establishment of the PRP and its following political discourse and practice carry certain post-Islamist tones. Religions 2022, 13, 136 opposition movement in Jordan, and whether a post-Islamist main opposition would come out of this To answer these questions, the consequences of the PRP’s formation and activities on the Jordanian opposition in general and on the regime are analyzed, respectively

The History of Political Opposition in Jordan
Muslim Brotherhood and Its Splinter Groups
Islamic Centre Party
Zamzam Initiative
Muslim Brotherhood Association
Partnership and Rescue Initiative
A Post-Islamist Transformation of Political Opposition in Jordan?
Implications for the MB and the IAF
The Implications for the Broader Jordanian Opposition
The Implications of the PRP for the Jordanian Regime
Findings
Conclusions
Full Text
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