200,000 Jordanians Publically Condemn Zarqawi

Al-Husseini Mosque, Amman

Between 200,000-250,000 Jordanians gathered in Jordan today to protest the terrorism of the Jordanian-born Palestinian known as Zarqawi. According to reports, the protest began at the al-Husseini Mosque and grew ever larger as it moved 1-1/2 miles from the downtown Suq (shopping area), ending at a large rally at the Amman City Hall.

The people held signs and chanted slogans such as, "Zarqawi, from Amman, we say to you: 'You are a coward.'"

Many other signs identified people as representing the many different tribal groups in Jordan...both Bedouin and Palestinian.

The media reports that, "An anti-terrorist demonstration of such size is unprecedented in the Arab world."

It appears that Arabs themselves are beginning to draw their own "lines in the sand' and declare, "This shall not stand!"

As I have said repeatedly over the past year, there will be no resolution of Islamist terrorism until the Muslim world itself rises up and takes a stand against it.

Certainly, there was no Muslim vs. Muslim sentiment expressed today in Amman (although the act of one Muslim murdering other innocent Muslims is unjustifiable to many Muslims....especially when it happens in YOUR neighborhood!). The issue was more political and nationalistic in nature....a declaration of Jordanian solidarity against an enemy who, by attacking Jordanians and Palestinians in Amman, had attacked them all, personally.

In this sense, the anger directed against Zarqawi today was intensly personal in nature. Each Jordanian there was letting Zarqawi know that he was hated by each of them, personally. A strong message that this al-Qaeda affiated terrorist will most certainly have to take to heart.

In another blunder, this time two-fold, Zarqawi released a statement intended to explain himself but will most certainly only make the Jordanian people even more outraged.

According to CNN, Zarqawi (referring to the Radisson Hotel were over 30 people attending a Jordanian/Palestinian wedding receiption were killed) denied that the wedding party was a target.

Instead, he praised who he called the "three lions (who) left their dens in Iraq and headed to the heart of Amman to carry out the blessed attacks against three targets known to be headquarters of Jews, Crusaders and other enemies of God." (He did not make reference to the would-be suicide wife who was arrested after her failed attempt to blow herself up along with her husband at the Radisson wedding reception).

Zarqawi declared that the evidence that one of the bombers purposely blew himself up amid the crowded wedding party as "baseless lies fabricated by the evil Jordanian intelligence services." Instead, he suggested that the bomb may have exploded on the floor above the reception, causing the ceiling to collapse; then adding,

Oh, our people in Jordan, what do we have to do with explosions amidst wedding celebrations? If we wanted to blow up our bombs in such places, be mindful that wedding halls are all over the country, open to everyone with no guards or security risk.

No doubt these words will fall on deaf ears of a Jordanian population that, following the November 9th bombings, gathered in the streets of Amman chanting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!"

The evidence is clear and undeniable....and backed up by the full confessions of one of the attackers on the Radisson Hotel....that the suicide bombers freely chose to place themselves in that wedding reception in order to kill and injure as many of those people as possible. Unless they were blind they could have easly seen that there were few, if any, Israelis or Americans in that room that night.

Zarqawi can blame the Jordanian Security folks for lying all he wants. The Jordanian people know better. He has proven himself to be a liar and a traitor to not just the ordinary Jordanian and Palestinian individual, but to the religion of Islam, as well.

The second blunder in Zarqawi's alleged tape message today is to declare King Abdullah of Jordan "an infidel and a traitor." The Jordanian people may well wonder, "A traitor to what? A traitor to who? Zarqawi? Islam?"

The motto for the country of Jordan is, "Allah (God), Homeland, The King: Jordan First."

King Hussein (l.) & King Abdullah II (r.)

By attacking King Abdullah as well as bombing hotels in Amman Zarqawi has hit the people of Jordan where they are the most passionate. Most Jordanians love Abdullah almost as much as they loved his father, the late King Hussein. Abdullah earned his own way through the Jordanian version of Special Forces and, although his power is almost absolute (he can be over-ruled by a 2/3 vote of both houses of the freely-elected National Assembly), he is trusted as one who sincerely puts the interests of the people of Jordan first in all things.

Zarqawi can never hope to attain the level of support in Jordan enjoyed by Abdullah. Given a choice, all but the most marginalized and radical Palestinians living in Jordan would choose Abdullah in a second.

King Abdullah II & Family

This second blunder is compounded by attacking the King personally with this threat,

(King Abdullah) "Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off."

This final charge will be particulary galling to Muslims since Abdullah is the Great Great Grandson of the Sharif (religious leader) of Mecca and a member of the Hashimite tribe which traces its roots back to the Great Grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad himself. (...a "descendent of traitors" ....hmmmm.)

If you listen very carefully you can hear the sound of millions of Jordanians scratching Zarqawi's name off of their 2005 Christmas lists.