The recent burning of a Shiite pilgrim’s hotel in mainly Sunni Muslim Jordan has raised more questions than answers about who carried out the attack. Authorities, be it the Jordanian interior ministry, police or government officials, have been reluctant to identify publicly those responsible, possibly pending investigation of the May 3 incident.
One thing is clear, however, that sectarian conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites roiling in neighboring Syria and Iraq seem to be having an impact on religious sensitivities inside the normally moderate kingdom, according to Jordanians familiar with the incident.
Police arrested the perpetrators who set a hotel ablaze in the town of Karak, some 75 miles south of the capital, Amman. The reported owner, Dia Mohammed Burhanuddin, is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra, a branch of Shiite Islam, and who is believed to be of Indian origin. Unfortunately, he could not be reached for his account of the arson incident.
“Jordan is a country that abides by the rule of law, and justice will be applied upon completion of the investigation,” an official told Ammonnews, a Jordanian news website. It reported that the Bohra community filed an official complaint at the Karak Public Attorney’s office. The Karak governor’s office and other authorities did not respond to repeated attempts for information.
The lodging purportedly served Shiite tourists and pilgrims visiting holy sites sacred to their sect, particularly the shrine of Jaafar bin Abi Talib, a cousin of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and brother of Imam Ali. Shiites and Druze constitute perhaps just 2 percent of Jordan’s 6.5 million population. Christians make up the largest minority at 6 percent, while Sunni Muslims predominate.
No official information, just speculation about the attack on a Shiite hotel
The lack of an official public statement so far about the attackers has led to speculation about those responsible for the assault.
“Neither the government nor the security apparatus is talking about who is responsible,” said Ibrahim Gharaibeh, an expert on Islamic movements at the University of Jordan’s Center for Strategic Studies. “Maybe they know, but they haven’t announced who is responsible due to the sensitivity of the situation” because it involves Shiites.
The Dawoodi Bohra form a very small, tight-knit community made up of approximately one million adherents worldwide, with the majority residing in India and Yemen. They are known for their philanthropic efforts, including setting up hospitals and schools as well as carrying out renovations and restorations of Islamic and Shiite landmarks.
A resident says ordinary people did it
A resident of Karak, who asked not to be identified, said that people in the region known as Southern Mazar, were likely to have been responsible. He believes they were ordinary people and not militants. They allegedly contacted local police about “half a dozen times complaining that the hotel was not just serving as a lodging, but as a mosque and a preaching and teaching school for Shiites,” he claimed.
A letter of complaint had been sent to local authorities, but the “government did not do anything,” he added.
He said that a throng of hundreds of men and youths protested against the alleged above-mentioned activities outside the hotel on May 3 when some angry young men broke into the hotel and set it alight. “They destroyed laptops, books and furniture,” he said.
The Jordanian civil defense forces helped the owner, his wife and children safely escape the burning building.
The man said the Interior Ministry has called for a meeting by local authorities and religious leaders to discuss the incident and restore calm to the area.
Militancy expert believes Salafists carried out the attack
Gharaibeh, the Islamic movements expert, believes the perpetrators are Jordanian Salafists — hardline ultraorthodox Sunni Muslims — some of whom advocate violent jihad.
“I believe they are Salafists because they consider Shiites as their enemies whether in Jordan or anywhere else in the world,” he said.
“Emotions are running high in Jordan against Shiites because of what is happening in Syria,” he said.
Gharaibeh said many Jordanians support the revolution against Syrian President Bashar Assad after seeing the appalling suffering of hundreds of thousands inside and outside the war-torn country. Jordan hosts more than half a million Syrians who fled the violence which has now entered its third year.
“They feel that Shiites, such as Iran and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, who support Assad are responsible in part for what is taking place inside Syria,” he said.
But he stopped short of saying that militants linked to Jabat al-Nusra, which is fighting against Assad forces in Syria and whose leader recently pledged allegiance to al-Qaida, could have carried out the attack. “Nobody is speaking about whether Jabat al-Nusra is operating in Jordan. It’s difficult to know because there is a lack of information on this and specifically on the event,” he said.
Anti-Shiite sentiment
Although Gharaibeh did said that controversy has been brewing within Sunni Muslim ranks as salafists and their ideology seem to be gaining more ground in many places, not only Jordan. “They call for extremists to take up action against Shiites and support the Syrian revolution.”
“Now the street (ordinary people) in Jordan is saturated with anti-Shiite sentiment,” he said. “It’s politically difficult for the government to talk about the people who burned the building because I sense that there are both people who are angry and those who are pleased about what took place in Karak.”
He wrote an article recently against the arson attack, calling it a grave mistake, but said he was taken aback by a number of readers who told him he was wrong.
Gharaibeh complained that some tend to use a broader stroke when they talk about Shiites and sometimes speak out of ignorance. He said the Bohra Shiites in Karak have no political relationship whatever to Iran, Hezbollah or Assad.
“There’s a lot of information, not all of it accurate, in the press and on the Internet claiming they are a secret group, but no one can prove that they did anything,” he said.
Gharaibeh said, on the contrary, authorities here likely know much about the activities of the Bohra Shiites in Jordan and their visitors as the security services are keen to maintain the country’s well-noted stability.
But on a darker note, he also said there may be some who are looking to exploit the popular anti-Shiite sentiment at the moment.
“Some in the government view Shiites and their influence as working against Jordan’s interests and it’s a chance for them and the people on the street to be on the same page,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for politicians to cover their failings in tackling tough economic issues and the country’s development, while scoring points with the people without having to do anything.”