 Jordan could face an increasing Al Qaida-aligned insurgency fueled by lack of economic opportunity in the kingdom.
"We're so poor, we don't even have a Mom. The best we can do is a lady who comes in twice a week!"
"Us, too! Let's go kill some infidels!"
"Hokay." |
The International Crisis Group said the Nov. 9 coordinated Al Qaida suicide attacks in Amman could be the first of a wave of Islamic insurgency strikes. The Brussels-based ICG said in a report that many young Jordanians, including those who trained in Afghanistan up to three years ago, have been attracted to Al Qaida's insurgency in neighboring Iraq.
| "Yeah! The money's real good! Last week I ate something!" |
The report said 500 Jordanians trained by Al Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s came from Zarqa, home of Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, today Al Qaida's chief in Iraq. Other Al Qaida fighters, including those who fought the United States in Iraq, came from Salt. "The general public's lack of representation and shortage of economic opportunities has fed into a romanticized notion of jihad that has sent a steady trickle of young men across the border to join the fight against the U.S. in Iraq," Robert Malley, director of ICG's Middle East and North Africa program, said. "The November attacks are a preview of what's to come unless the government gets serious about real reform."
"Gosh, Mahmoud! The idea of blowing up! It's so romantic!"
"And my economic opportunities are really short!"
"Let's run off to jihad!"
"Can we have sex first?" |
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