Unlicensed Brotherhood will not register as association or charity — spokesperson

AMMAN — The “old” Muslim Brotherhood on Monday insisted that it will not register as an association or charity to rectify its legal status, stressing that the group has been working in line with the law since its establishment in Jordan.

“We are not a political party or society that needs registration,” the group’s spokesperson, Muath Khawaldeh, told The Jordan Times, adding that the movement is willing to work under a “special law” that regulates its work.

He noted that since it was licensed in 1946 and relicensed in 1953, the group was registered as a “comprehensive” Islamic movement and it has been working accordingly since then.

“We are ready to study relicensing the group in accordance with a special law as is the case with some other national institutions and in a way that protects its legal status and goals,” Khawaldeh said.

“The Brotherhood movement is deep-rooted in Jordan, and regardless of the pressure we face, it will not be disbanded,” he added, noting that it is of national interest for the government to work with different components of the community now, and the Muslim Brotherhood is one of these components.

The group issued a statement late Sunday responding to remarks made by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour in an interview with Al Arabiya satellite channel broadcast on Friday.

The premier dismissed claims that the government licensed a new Muslim Brotherhood association, rendering the group tied with the mother branch in Egypt illegal, as a step against Hamas or other Muslim Brotherhood groups in Egypt and elsewhere, noting that the move is “purely organisational”.

In the statement, the unlicensed Brotherhood claimed that there are many organisations in Jordan that work without being licensed and no action is being taken against them.

In the interview, Ensour also said the “old” Brotherhood was licensed in 1946 as a charity affiliated with the mother group in Egypt, but after amendments to several laws it lost the licensed status and did not rectify it. 

Therefore, a group from the “unlicensed” movement registered a “new” Muslim Brotherhood a few months ago under Jordanian law, the premier said, noting that the government took its time in granting the licence to enable the entire movement to rectify its status, but members of the “old” group did not take action. 

The licensed group, he said, is not affiliated with any foreign extensions whether in Egypt or the rest of world and it does not receive foreign funding.

But Khawaldeh said the old Brotherhood did not receive any request, either verbally or in writing, to rectify its legal status. 

The issue was not even discussed at a meeting that Ensour held with the group’s leaders in March 2015, according to the spokesperson, who charged that targeting the movement and restricting its work is a “political” decision and not a “legal” one.