Israel prides itself not only on being able to defend its own people, but on its ability to care for others. Last week, Israel held the first-ever “Future of Minorities” in the Middle East conference; hosting the conference was an Israeli academic and famous social media figure, Dr. Edy Cohen. The conference aimed to shed light on the persecution of minorities in the Middle East, mostly the Druze, Kurdish and Alawites in Syria. There was no discrimination over religion; in fact, the conference was entirely focused upon the human rights of these minorities in a region that is filled with Islamic terror and hatred.
One of the participants in this conference was Mr. Abdelelah Almaala, a Jordanian Muslim who lives in the USA and holds US citizenship. He is also known to be a political opponent of Jordanian King Abdullah’s regime and of the monarchy in Jordan. Almaala attended the conference, delivered a pro-minorities and pro-Israel speech, and then finished his Israeli tour by visiting the Western Wall to deliver another pro-Israel and pro-Jews speech there. This stoked anger and provoked repercussions from the minions of the Jordanian regime.
The Jordanian regime affiliate Sheikh Dhaifallah al-Qallab, the appointed tribe leader of the Bani Hasan tribe, to which Almaala belongs, strongly denounced Almaala’s actions on Jordanian media, and disowned Almaala. It’s worth mentioning that in Jordan, the king of Jordan bestows the title “tribe leader.” He picks his loyalists in each tribe and crowns them with this title, so that they defend and protect the regime’s interests in their communities.
It’s also worth mentioning that al-Qallab hosted the king and the crown prince of Jordan in his home; at this gathering, he explicitly called himself “a soldier in the king’s army.”
Almaala also faced repercussions on social media, including death threats from Muslims, some of whom also live in the United States, and who are loyalists of the king of Jordan.
This is another clear indication that Arab regimes, especially the regime in Jordan, want to make the relationship and peace with Israel exclusive to the government level only, not the level of the public. That is why we keep seeing jihad terror in the Middle East and it never ends, because any peace activist in Jordan who tries to advocate for public normalization and peace with Israel will end up getting demonized and threatened by the regime’s loyalists, and nobody will stand up for him, even if he holds American citizenship.
Will we see the State Department banning all those who attacked Abdelelah Almaala, such as Sheikh Dhaifallah al-Qallab, from entering the United States? Will we see those who already live in the United States and attacked him for defending Jews investigated by FBI anti-terror agents? Let’s hope.
Cynthia says
Perhaps Rubio, the most consistent against jihad in the administration, will take this up. However, there are many more pernicious Islamist plots here that are keeping us constantly busy.
commonsense says
Almaala’s stance and bravery are praiseworthy, but I wonder how he, as a Muslim, came to believe as he does. It would be interesting to find out. Similarly,we know there are Muslims with Israeli citizenship who are staunchly supportive of Israel, even joining the IDF and dying in combat fighting other Muslims. How, one wonders, given the tenets of Islam, can this be possible? Very curious.