ASIA/JORDAN - Archbishop Laham: "the Islamist demonstration on Friday could get out of hand"

Amman (Agenzia Fides) - "Next Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood has called for a large demonstration against the election. The leaders of the tribes have threatened to take to the streets 200 thousand people, ready to create havoc. We hope it does not happen." This is how Archbishop Maroun
Laham, Patriarchal Vicar for Jordan of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, describes to Fides the critical step the Hashemite kingdom has to cross, with elections scheduled by the end of the year.
Faced with the prospect - ventilated by many - that even King Abdullah II’s Jordan is infected by destabilizing processes underway in the Middle East scenario, the Archbishop reiterates some points: "The next elections in Jordan should be the first free and democratic elections . The government will be appointed for the first time by the majority party. So far it was the king to appoint the government and the prime minister. The Muslim Brotherhood have announced for a long time to want to boycott the elections. If the promises of a free and democratic electoral competition will be maintained, they could have an actual weight in the political evolution of the Country. If instead they remain steadfast in the choice of the boycott, their position will end up being only negative."
According to Archbishop Lahham even the delicate political phase in Jordan reflects the instability that prevails in the Middle East: "in Syria things are getting darker. So far, as a Church, we insist in the appeal to peace, reconciliation and forgiveness, but we do not see a way out of this crisis, with the government that does not give in and the resistance that seems increasingly supported from the outside with the sending of weapons. As winter approaches, humanitarian plight of immigrants becomes unsustainable, such as those massed tens of thousands in the camp of Zataari. Among them dozens of Syrian agents have infiltrated, to create problems in Jordan. When they are discovered, they are immediately sent back to their country." (GV) (Agenzia Fides 02/10/2012).