Every year, I receive from King Abdullah II and Queen Rania a greeting card that includes a picture of the royal couple and their children. Over the past ten years, I have seen their two sons and two daughters grow up until Prince Hussein, the Crown Prince, became as tall as his parents, or taller in the last card I received. There isn't any personal relationship between me and the King and Queen save for this greeting card, so I hope the reader will remember this as he continues reading. While developments in Egypt overshadowed all else, I heard about a statement published by Jordanian tribal leaders addressed to King Abdullah II. I requested a copy of the statement. As I read and reread it, I felt a mixture of anger and sadness. The statement was signed by 37 men (the women were in the kitchen or the bedroom). Some of their family names were known. However, the names of the signatories to the statement were unknown, at least not to me personally. While I do not claim to have a thorough knowledge of Jordanian affairs, I would argue that Jordan is my country, and I have a thousand friends there. I have interviewed the late King Hussein more than any other non-Jordanian journalist did, and also interviewed King Abdullah II after he stepped to the throne, and I can record here the names of many Jordanians in government or outside it whom I consider to be personal friends. I am trying to be objective, despite my anger and sadness. I thus agree with the statement regarding the references to corruption, and the need to fight it and hold those responsible for it accountable. I also refuse, as an Arab citizen, the sale of public property in Jordan and elsewhere. Other than that, I refuse everything else mentioned in the statement. The signatories have shown their true colors when they threatened the King, and mentioned six times that the ‘Tunisian and Egyptian tsunami' may reach Jordan. They also severely insulted Queen Rania, and repeated phrases that included absurd exaggerations, such as: The martyrs of Jordan who were killed as a result of torture and repression….corruption, intransigence and tyranny…stifling voices and breaths…exclusion, marginalization and accusations of treason…sinkholes for the people's money and the vampires sucking the blood of the people… Is this statement about Jordan, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq? In a paragraph that is as vile as its signatories, the statement refers to Leila Trabelsi and Suzanne Mubarak, and says, “What Leila and Suzanne did has a replica in Jordan but in a more malignant and menacing manner…” Words as such are as vulgar as their utterers, and they invalidate the title of ‘tribal leaders' that they ascribe to themselves. Tribes are known for their magnanimity, morality, respect, and politeness, and I am talking here specifically about the signatories of the statement, not the tribes of Jordan, who are the backbone of the country. Further, I refuse that the name of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak be used in this context, as she is more honorable than the signatories, both together and as individuals. I know Queen Rania in Jordan, and I know her even more at international conferences around the world, from America to Europe and the Arab world. She is among the finest of people, and a model of educated and refined Arab women, such as Sheikha Mozah al-Missned, Mrs. Asma al-Assad and the other spouses of Arab leaders. Queen Rania of Jordan elevates Jordan's position in every international forum while the signatories to the statement lower it. Queen Rania is as beautiful as she is intelligent, and combines youth and refinement. Whenever I see her speaking at a conference, I see people gathered around her. She is an ambassador of her country and of every Arab woman in every other country. The causes that she advocates include the rights of women and children, fighting domestic violence, and spreading education and healthcare. Her efforts in these domains are pioneering and have given tangible results, and only the spiteful would deny this. What do the signatories of the statement want on the other hand? They want jobs. Their objection to corruption, which I don't deny, is because they feel they did not have their (fair) share of it then. They are parasites who want a job and a salary but no work, in a country that lacks natural resources. The statement also says, “We reject the undermining of the Arabic and Islamic identity, customs, and traditions…” What follows after that is an account of practices in Jordan as though the country is like Sodom and Gomorrah, even though it is a very conservative country in reality. No one can undermine the Arab and Islamic identity, and it is impossible that there is someone in the Jordanian leadership who is trying to do so. As for customs and traditions, then it is they who have undermined them with their impoliteness and exaggerations. Moreover, what are these customs and traditions exactly? Fathers stabbing their daughters to death, or brothers who strangle their sisters with their bare hands, in “(lack of) honor” crimes, only to be released from prison a few months later as heroes celebrated by their tribes? Or are they for Jordan to be represented abroad by one of them with a moustache, a permanent frown and an unbearable character since birth with the language of cab drivers in Amman? They want King Abdullah to repress Queen Rania, like they repress their wives and daughters. They are the same type of people as those who chanted at a football match “divorce her, divorce her”, because their brains are in the same place as their feet. Do they want King Abdullah to instead marry Umm Za'al, or Jarweh, or Baz'ah, or Henishi, or other names as such and like the ones we see in obituaries in Jordanian newspapers? King Abdullah II and Queen Rania represent the Age of Enlightenment, and those who signed the statement represent the dark ages. I shall conclude as they started. Their statement began with a verse from the Quran, and I have a verse specifically tailored for people like them. The King, the Queen, the Jordanians and I are Arabs, but they are ‘tribal' personalities', i.e. they are wandering Arabs, which the Quran described thus, “The wandering Arabs are more stubborn in disbelief and hypocrisy and more likely to be ignorant of the limits which Allah hath revealed unto His messenger…” [email protected]
