In the Arab world it always starts with a fire.
Jordan largely avoided the fire that came out of Tunisia in late 2010, when a poor man burned himself and ignited a whole Arab revolt. But the distant effects of that immolation, channeled years later through the war in Syria, have got Jordan’s attention this time.
Last week, Jordan saw its place scorched into modern history, making its traditionally soft-spoken voice heard above the cacophony of a raucous region. But its sudden moment of relevance came on the back of tragedy for a family, a whole tribe, and an entire kingdom when its fighter pilot was posthumously thrust into the spotlight. First Lt. Muath al-Kasasbeh was shown burning to death in a cage, having been unspeakably murdered a month earlier by the villainous group calling itself Islamic State (or Daesh).
That day’s events spun a population into a pro-Jordanian, anti-Daesh frenzy, a palpably heightened passion from a previously quiet refuge in a turbulent Arab world. They signalled a new wave of international Arab and Muslim horror, mingled with pride in Jordan’s monarch, who voiced his cause from his own corner – not speaking the freedom-fighting rhetoric of an American president. Having ruled in his father’s shadow, the king seems to be starting to live up to his subjects’ great expectations, and the very high bar set by his late father.
This week we remembered King Abdullah’s father for the16th anniversary of the death of King Hussein, oft remembered and venerated as a skilled and compassionate monarch. This is a moment for the reigning king to come out of his father’s shadow and he has now announced himself as a defender of the Faith and the Arab world, no less.
When the heinous video was unleashed, Jordanians balked at the horror of the burning and the sacrilege of appropriating God’s prerogative to burn through hell-fire, before calling for swift revenge.
Where it could have been ugly, the country’s reaction was proud – and it was beautiful. Jordanians had earlier expressed anger toward their country for being part of a coalition that embroiled them in yet another foreign-led war they weren’t sure they’d signed up for. But in the light of Muath’s death, the king’s subjects channeled their emotions into that cathartic patriotic zeal.
This loud choral unison may mark a turning point in the kingdom’s splintered history—a country speciously united while tugged between Palestinian, and Bedouin, and other loyalties. Jordan’s people seemed to shun popular revolt and internal strife, opting instead for national unity and Team Jordan-styled glory—a good healthy dose of jingoistic support for their king in his newly sworn ‘relentless war’ against the real enemy of Muslims and all mankind.
Arab unity is a long-lost cause, but even a week after the horror, Arabs from across the Levant and the Middle East feel something Jordanian in them stir, a pride in and affinity with the staid kingdom nestled between so much strife. Internally, Jordanians who would have otherwise spoken to their roots beyond the Kingdom, be they in Palestine, Syria, Turkey or the Caucasus, were this week Jordanian first.
By D. D.
