JORDAN: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD OPENS TO CHRISTIAN CANDIDATES

JORDAN: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD OPENS TO CHRISTIAN CANDIDATES
– The Jordanian section of the Muslim Brotherhood has said it wants to include Christian candidates among its electoral lists for general elections next year, according to the Saudi newspaper al-Watan. The daily says that Hamza Mansur, the secretary of the Islamic Labour Front, an electoral alliance led by the Muslim Brotherhood, has revealed that in the 2006 polls Christians may run on its electoral ticket, as long as they respect the nationalist line of the alliance, and its emphasis on Jordan’s Arab roots and membership of the wider Islamic nation.

This move by the Jordanian Islamic movement seems intended to widen their electoral base by absorbing other parties. A similar decision was taken in 1989 but on that occasion was kept secret with supporters of the Islamic movement simply being told to vote for certain Christian candidates who were not present in their own parties’ lists.

Some four percent of Jordan’s population of around five million is Christian, while the remaining 96 percent is Sunni Muslim.