Jordan: Ban on Brotherhood rally legal issue, not political

The Jordanian government spokesman, Muhammed al-Momani, announced that the government's decision to cancel a celebration by the Muslim Brotherhood marking the seventieth anniversary of the party's founding was “within the laws that regulate such events”, and not to do with internal disagreements within the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood.

The event was set to be held on Friday.

“The disagreements within the Brotherhood should be settled in court and the government does not interfere in their [internal] disagreements,” al-Momani said.

Al-Momani noticeably avoided mentioning by name the Muslim Brotherhood, whose legal status as a political party is being contested since a breakaway group was granted official permission to operate as a political association by the name of “The Muslim Brotherhood Group” in March.

“A number of Jordanian citizens submitted a notice about holding a public celebration event after which the legally licensed Muslim Brotherhood association objected to the event on the grounds that the organisers of the event have impersonated the name of the licensed association,” al-Momani added. “Therefore, it is the government's responsibility to deal with the issue according to the law.”

The government spokesman also referred to the original Muslim Brotherhood group in the past tense, saying that there “used to be a Muslim Brotherhood group”.

The original Brotherhood group had decided to postpone its celebration to a later date on Wednesday night.

“We feel that some parties are pushing the country towards crisis point to cover the government's failure in solving the political, social and economic crises facing the country,” the group said in a statement.