The Dubious Role of Jordanian Intelligence in Dispersing the Islamic Scholars of the Levant

Hussein Murtada

The war on Syria was not confined to the security and military dimensions, as it transcended to many other aspects like humanitarian, political and intellectual.

Since the war on Syria broke out, many ideas and assumptions came to the surface. They were deeper than a superficial image of the conflict promoted as public demands of some rights. These ideas were accompanied by the silent attitude of some scholars until the famous theologian Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al- Bouti declared his stance.

Al-Bouti explicitly stated that the current situation aims at destroying Syria and the axis of resistance. This stance encouraged other scholars to follow or have similar attitudes. Features of the eminent danger plaguing Syria have became more and more evident for the scholars.

Such a danger is risking the moderate Islamic current that distinguishes people of the Levant. Consequently, these theologians decided to found an independent Islamic scholar organization under the name of the "Union of the Levant scholars" including many Islamic scholars from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.
This move was not welcomed by countries inciting sectarianism, training and arming the militias. Thus, they launched wars against this union by issuing "fatwas" (religious orders).

Later on, the Jordanian intelligence started to found an Islamic scholars organization in Jordan, communicating with scholars who were previously related to them like dr. Ahmad Qarralah, Sheikh Shaaban al-Ghazawi and Khaled Ahmad.
Dr. Qarralah was appointed as the dean of Islamic studies institute at the university of "Al al-Beit" paving the way for launching the Islamic scholars organization under his trust.

According to the information , the Jordanian intelligence seeks forming scholars Islamic community that can control the principal objective behind this id, creating a rift between Muslim scholars especially in the Levant. They also want to impose an alternative community depending on a Saudi media and financial support and the demand of the British intelligence.

Such a move, according to their belief ,can help them achieve some sectarian goals. As a matter of fact, this is not new to the Jordanian intelligence as Ahmad Fadhil al-Khalayleh, aka, "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" got his training under the patronage of the Jordanian intelligence while he was serving time during the reign of King Hussein. Moreover, the Jordanian intelligence released the infamous radical "Makdisi" who is the master of Zarqawi. Moreover, we should not overlook the role of the Jordanian radical current that helped moving weapons and insurgents into Iraq under the full view of Jordanian intelligence . And the role continued since the beginning of the war on Syria.

Source: al-Ahed news