By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)

Most ignore that the father of ISIS is neither Iraqi or Syrian, but Jordanian of the Beni Hassan tribe whom Abu Musab al-Zarqawi belonged to and who  is considered today as the “spiritual father” of ISIS, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq until his death in 2006. And today, Jordan is witnessing important changes in which Islamist Salfists are now transferring their allegiance from the Salafist groups to ISIS. But this problem is the tip of the iceberg. The bigger problem is that it used to be that most Salafists came from a Palestinian background, but now, the most prominent Salafi jihadists who are giving allegiance to ISIS have overflowed into the tribal Jordanian stock, like Bani Hasan which these tribes were the backbone of the King. As these tribal allegiances deteriorate by transferring to ISIS so will the Kingdom begin to see ‘the writing on the wall’.

It is important to also note that these tribes are the original biblical Edomites and Moabites and why this is crucial is that Jordan prophetically (Edom, Moab, Ammon) is spared from the onslaught of Antichrist (Daniel 11:41). How this emerges becomes clearer that now Jordan’s government in which the King, Abdullah II, is solely dependent not on the Palestinian stock, but on tribal allegiances from the biblical Edomites and Moabites who are moving towards ISIS by the day.

Palestinians compose mostly more than half of the population, who came as Palestinian refugees between 1947 to 1967 after loosing to the Jews. Even though most Palestinians and their descendants in Jordan are fully naturalized, making Jordan the only Arab country to fully integrate them, the problem is that in the Middle East, Palestinians do not integrate much and have a tendency to transform their host into a base for their causes. So what is left of Jordan who historically have been the backbone of the King’s support (the tribes) are beginning to ditch their allegiance to the King. In Jordan, the largest tribes are Bani Sakhr (who historically fought against Napoleon‘s army under the command of General Kleber), Bani Gharaibeh, Bani Hamida, Bani Hasan (the tribe which Zarqawi belongs to), the Howeitat and others … these were always the backbone of the King.

Besides our focus on biblical Edom, the Bedouin (Desert Dwellers, Wanderers), has a significant spiritual lesson. Bedouin comes from the Arabic badiya which means ‘desert’ and the word Arab  which in the semitic language comprises of three letters “Arb” literally means wanderer, while “Abr” (Eber, literally means Hebrew, or to pass through or enter). In other words, one, being of Ishmael, is wandering lost while Eber, being of Israel, passes through the Jordan into the promised land while Arab and Allah prevents the region from obtaining the salvation from God and obstructs entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. The key then is to come from being a ‘lost wanderer’ (Arb) into salvation. Truly, this is the crux of the whole issue and is why Arabia’s Islam adopted the god Allah to mimic the Hebrew God and is why Islam, the religion of Antichrist “looks like a lamb with two horns, but speaks like a dragon” (Revelation 13:11). It is this culmination of this Antichrist religion, which wants to pass through the Jordan, not through the true God but through his allegiance to a god of Fortresses (war) sparing Edom and Moab, two prophetically significant tribes  on his way to invade Jerusalem.

Today, this tribal affiliation includes even the Royal Family which is descended from the Prophet Muhammad who himself came from the Hashemite clan of the tribe of the Quraysh (hence the name ‘The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’.

The King of Jordan, King Abdullah II and his family

While the King, as his father before him, were raised by the English in their management of the country, the problem has been especially, a desire to remove such western influence, especially east of the Jordan where huge numbers are now transforming their support from Salafist to ISIS. Cities such tribal areas as Salt and Ma’an, and the tribal areas, have become centres of jihadi Salafists and are now transferring their allegiance to ISIS. The movement has expanded also in other tribal cities like Zarqa which is the hometown of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi.

Salafists for ISIS in Jordan filling the streets

The expansion of ISIS includes the movement in the tribal city of Russeifah, comprising hundreds of thousands of people, has been strengthened as a result of leaving tribal traditions.

Salafists, Wahhabists and Ikhwan demonstrating in Jordan

Russeifah which consists of a large number of young people (68% of its population under the age of 25) also adjacent to Zarqa form the Salafist jihadist stronghold in Jordan. Comprising most of the city streets where poverty worsened by mud barriers and narrow alleys, and Zarqa’s population below the poverty line in Jordan with an annual average income of 436 Jordanian dinars (615 €), according to a study by the United Nations development program and now a whopping 85 % of the jihadist community supports ISIS  who could thus attract the rest of Jordanians to start the war of victory against the King.

One prominent figure is Amer Al-Khalayleh. He is the brother in law of Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi, the father of ISIS.

Then we have Abu Sayyaf who focuses on the leadership role under Al-Nusra, namely, Iyad al-Tubasi, also known as Abu Julaybib, son-in-law of Zarqawi, who is said to have fought alongside him in Iraq and was a leader of the front for victory in Damascus and Daraa. Then there is Abdul Latif, also known as Abu Anas Al-Sahabeh, who was a leader in Al-Nusra Front, the closest to ISIS’s brutal killings.

The problem compounds when also the middle class in Jordan are getting closer to ISIS due to the agenda of the Salafists complaining about taxes with increasing number of middle class seeing their incomes go down and find themselves in a State of despair.

Young people are the most important source of human munitions for ISIS and the lack of political integration among young people has helped to advance ISIS’s agenda. ISIS raised the bet against the Hashemite Kingdom in February this year when they posted a video showing ISIS burning pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage and now they are repeatedly threatening the system via downloading videos on YouTube showing members of Jordanians joining ISIS while burning their Jordanian passports threatening to crawl towards the Kingdom to annihilate it.

Government policy is based primarily on three main tactics to defeat ISIS. First, they acquitted several renowned jihadis for denouncing ISIS such as Abu qatada al-Maqdisi, to force Jihadis to represent a more moderate option. Jordan has adopted a strategy of ‘ divide and conquer ‘ as such persons are willing to condemn ISIS is significant for the King to remain in power.

The Jordanian Government adopted a second approach focused on the detention and prosecution of suspects, and that 60% of whom come from towns Russeifah and Zaqra where the Kingdom is more lenient fearing to lose tribal loyalties. The Salafist jihadists circumvented censorship by rerouting their trips, traveling to Iraq via Turkey or other Arab countries then returning to spread the ISIS dogma.

The third strategy for Jordanian intelligence is to penetrate the Jihadi groups. But this has been significantly more successful with Al-Nusra while ISIS has very strong intelligence thanks to Abu Ali al-anbari, the second in command in ISIS.

By switching to ISIS, Jordan is more concerned about the repercussions that will be aligned with the return of Jordanian fighters as well as the growth of ISIS at the home front.