'Islamic awakening not recent in Jordan'

Sat Apr 16, 2011

The Islamic awakening is not a recent phenomenon in the Arab states including Jordan, as it has taken years to be “developed” by the people, says an analyst.

“The Islamic awakening inside the Arab world is not recent. This has been [there] since maybe the 1950s or the 1940s ... in the Arab world,” Maher Salloum, ambassador for peace with Universal Peace Federation (UPF) from Beirut told Press TV on Saturday.

“Now, today in Jordan there is an Islamic reawakening, and since the election of some of the members of the parliament inside Jordan, there have been signals that Islamic parties and nationalists have been leading -- on the front -- in the elections or in the parliament in Jordan,” Salloum added.

“This move cannot be in just a week or two or in [a] one-month period; it needs years to be developed and to be created by the people and for the people and for their own interests.”

The remarks come as Jordan continues to witness protests demanding political and economic reforms.

On Friday, scores of people were injured in clashes between pro and anti-government demonstrators in Jordan's northern city of Zarqa.

In the capital of Amman, anti-government protesters marched to the city hall for a sit-in after Friday prayers to demand a greater political voice.

Protesters demand free and fair elections and an end to corruption.

“[The Jordanian government] depends on international donations from international organizations, from Britain, [and] from America. The government, it seems, has embezzled or taken away the resources or the funds that have been given to them by the West. It wasn't proportionately and equally distributed among the ministries and even the people of Jordan,” Salloum said.

Jordanian protesters are also calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit.

Following three weeks of anti-government demonstrations across Jordan, King Abdullah II sacked Prime Minister Samir Rifai and appointed Marouf Bakhit as the country's new premier.

Jordan's anti-government protesters, however, have been calling for the ouster of the newly-appointed prime minister, as well as intelligence chief Mohammed Raqqad.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175152.html.