Arabic media review

Satan comes to Jordan

Elsewhere, Syrian rebels are denied weapons, again, but get a first embassy in Qatar

Michael Bassin is a founding member of the Gulf-Israel Business Council, a co-founder at ScaleUpSales Ltd, and the author of "I Am Not a Spy: An American Jew Goes Deep In The Arab World & Israeli Army."

An instructor teaches Syrian rebels to use a rocket-propelled grenade launcher near Idlib, Syria, in March 2013. (photo credit: AP/Muhammed Muheisen)
An instructor teaches Syrian rebels to use a rocket-propelled grenade launcher near Idlib, Syria, in March 2013. (photo credit: AP/Muhammed Muheisen)

Jordanian authorities refuse to release five university students held  on charges of worshiping the devil and desecrating of the Qur’an, the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Thursday.

The students, four men and one woman, were accused by other students of taking part in satanic rituals on the campus of Al-albayt University outside Mafraq, north of Amman. They were arrested earlier this month.

If convicted, they could face six months to three years in prison. But prominent local Salafi clerics have called for them to be executed, saying satanism is “becoming an epidemic,” the paper reports.

The US-based group Human Rights Watch has been tracking the case. One of the rights group’s officials in the Middle East, Eric Goldstein, says the students deny the charges and have not been brought before a judge: “They were being subjected to abuse by a group of other students, and those students are the true aggressors. The authorities must release the five students and take all necessary measures to protect them.”

The accusers say they saw the defendants tearing up a copy of the Qur’an before throwing it in the toilet in “ritual worship of the devil.”

The families of the accused maintain there is no evidence to support the charges.

Calls to kill the students if they are released from prison have spread over Facebook and social networking sites, raising doubts about their ability to continue their studies in Jordan if released.

For Syrian rebels, an embassy but no weapons

Days after the Syrian National Coalition formally assumed the seat of Syria’s representative to the Arab League, Qatar has become the first country to officially grant the anti-Assad movement an official embassy.

Arab media praise the symbolism of the gesture, but criticize the international community for failing to provide military support to allow Syria’s opposition to finally wrest control of the country from Syrian President Bashar Assad.

As Syrian warplanes continue to launch air raids on neighborhoods in the suburbs of northern Damascus, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen once again ruled out a military intervention by Western countries, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports. Rasmussen’s declaration comes after the president of the Syrian National Coalition, Mouaz Al-Khatib, issued a desperate plea for weapons and missiles from the West. In recent days, Al-Khatib specifically called on the US government to supply his fighters with the Patriot missile to protect areas in Syria’s liberated north.

Al-Khatib, who resigned from his post last week, citing obstructive meddling by Arab nations in the Syria crisis and the refusal of the West to supply his movement with arms, remains resident because the Syrian National Coalition rejected his resignation. According to the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Al-Khatib agreed to stay on in return for guarantees that the coalition would become broader and include more women and minorities.

According to Al-Quds Al-Arabi’s leading editorial, headlined “Al-Khatib asks and America rejects,” America is hesitant about providing weapons to Syria’s opposition because “there are growing differences within the coalition itself that call into question the legitimacy of the leadership of the Syrian opposition. . . Sheikh Al-Khatib has not officially withdrawn his resignation as President of the coalition, which means that an impending leadership crisis still exists.”

“The repeated rejections by Western countries of our requests for military aid sends a message to the regime in Damascus: ‘Assad, do what you want,'” Al-Khatib said. “The Arab summit has ended, the presidents have returned to their home countries, and the Syrian crisis remains intact.'”

This is particularly revealing when considering the level of support provided to the Assad government by Russia and Iran. After slamming the Arab League for handing over the seat reserved for Syria to the opposition, diplomats in both countries launched a tirade against Qatar for allowing the Syrian opposition to open an embassy in Doha.

“This is another step taken against Syria,” the Russian Foreign Ministry announced. “In fact, this only encourages the forces who bet on a military solution for the conflict in Syria.”

The Doha-based media outlet Al-Jazeera states that Russian support for Assad remains so solid that no United Nations resolutions were passed in the past 12 months condemning the Syrian government for violence in the country. Israel, on the other hand, had 5 resolutions passed against it this past week.

The Saudi-owned A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports that sources in Tehran are calling the Arab League’s hostility towards the Assad regime “a dangerous precedent.”

Tareq Homayed, the outgoing editor-in-chief of A-Sharq Al-Awsat, laments the lack of coordination among the factions of the Syrian opposition and the American refusal to provide military assistance.  In an Op-Ed called “Syria, think different!” he writes that “the post-Assad era will be harsher than what is seen now because there will be no clear vision, no coordination, and no known allies that trust each other’s intentions.”

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