A possible confrontation between the Muslim Brotherhood group in Jordan and the government was avoided through an uneasy truce, with both parties opting to take a step back in preparation for their next move. On April 30, a day before the group was to hold a public rally in an Amman suburb to mark seven decades of existence, the leadership acquiesced to government warnings and postponed the event indefinitely.

A last-minute meeting between representatives of the group and the minister of interior convinced the Muslim Brotherhood leadership that the government was serious about its decision to ban the rally and that it would use all available means to prevent it from taking place. But what is particularly interesting is that the governor of Amman, who delivered a stern message to the group ordering it to stop the event, also said that the new Brotherhood had applied for permission using the name and insignia of an existing society. This was the closest the government has ever come to hinting that the 70-year-old group was now illegal or unlicensed.

The tussle started when breakaway members of the group applied for registration at the Ministry of Social Development as a society under the name of the Muslim Brotherhood. On March 3, the Interior Ministry approved their application and the society became a legal organ, despite protests by the larger Muslim Brotherhood group. The new society, whose 30 members had been dismissed from the group earlier, claimed that it was rectifying the legal status of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Since its registration, the society started presenting itself as the only legitimate body with that name. It chose former Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdul Majid Thuneibat as overseer. Most of those who defected to the new society were members of a reformist initiative called Zamzam. They had tried to impose a reform agenda on the group but were rebuffed by the hawkish leadership. Most of those associated with Zamzam initiative, including Thuneibat, were expelled from the group in February.

Even though the government had insisted that it was not taking sides in the recent split, it has become clear that the new society had found an ally in the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour. Thuneibat insists that his objective is to sever ties with “the terrorist group in Egypt” and to license his society as a Jordanian body. The Muslim Brotherhood says it was licensed twice in its history, once in 1946 and a second time in 1953. It argues that without such licensing, it would not have managed to participate in Jordan’s social and political life for almost 70 years.