Despite a massive show of national unity following the murder of Jordanian
pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh by the Islamic State, the country's Muslim Brotherhood has refused to join other Jordanians in standing against the terror group.
Instead, the Muslim Brotherhood's leader in Jordan, Sheikh Hammam Said, last week called on the government to withdraw from the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS).
In an interview with Radio Sawa, Said declared that the Hashemite Kingdom "should not be part of a coalition run by the United States."
At the same time, the Muslim Brotherhood has been criticized because its Jordanian branch, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), condemned the pilot's murder but did not declare him a shahid (martyr).
And many Jordanians are also upset over the fact that the
Brotherhood has stopped short of criticizing ISIS itself, according to the Jerusalem Center for Policy Analysis.
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reported that many Jordanian Facebook users were very angry about the Brotherhood's reaction to the murder of the pilot, which they dismissed as "lip service."
In an appearance on a Jordanian television channel, Sheikh Hamza Mansour, formerly secretary-general of the IAF, refused to call ISIS a terror organization.
In the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, a Hamas-affiliated parliamentarian declared his support for ISIS and blamed Jordan for the pilot's murder.
Sheikh Salam Salameh, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared that ISIS members "are, in one way or another, considered Muslims and we must not stand with the enemies of Allah against the people of Allah [ISIS]."
Salameh added that "Jordan is the reason for al-Kasaesbeh having been burned. It was the Jordanian government’s decision to send its army into Syria to assist the [Syrian] government against the rebels in their war."
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