Jordan confronting terrorism militarily, ideologically — Momani

AMMAN — Jordan opposes hate speech, and incitement and will not allow them to be part of or dominate any of the country’s media outlets, Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said late Saturday.

Momani, who is also minister of state for media affairs and communications, added that Jordan has a strategy to counter terrorism and it is implemented by the country’s various institutions.

Jordan has managed to thwart many attempts led by terrorists to infiltrate the country, but fighting terrorism is not only through military operations, the minister noted at a conference on the role of moderation in confronting terrorism for accomplishing global peace and stability, organised by the International Forum for Moderation.

“Fighting terrorism has other dimensions that are political, religious, educational and rhetorical,” he said.

Thus, Jordan has adopted a comprehensive strategy that includes developing a media plan to counter hate speech and highlight that Islam is actually a moderate religion, Momani added.

The strategy also entails empowering preachers in mosques to preach about moderate Islam, the spokesperson said.

Momani added that the Kingdom is proceeding with political reform to ensure the participation of different segments of society.

To that end, the Cabinet referred to the decentralisation and political parties draft laws to the Lower House of Parliament for deliberation last week, he noted.

The minister said the government will not deal or communicate with any “group” that is not licensed.

“We will not deal with any group that does not work in accordance with the provisions of the law”.