AMMAN, Jordan, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Only eight days after Jordan's parliament endorsed a controversial anti-terrorism law, a lone gunman opened fire at Western tourists in downtown Amman last week, killing one Briton and injuring six other people. It was the first test for the new law.
The legislation, passed on Aug. 27 by the 110-member elected lower house of Parliament dominated by pro-government conservative tribal leaders, has drawn sharp criticism from local politicians, civil society and international rights groups as it awaits endorsement by the appointed 55-seat Senate and then King Abdullah's signature.
Nabil Jaoura, 38 and father of five, was not recruited by al-Qaida or any other armed organization when he pulled out a hand-gun and fired at a group of Western tourists at the Roman Amphitheater in the Jordanian capital on Sept. 4.
Security sources said the man acted alone and they believe he was avenging the death of two of his brothers killed in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of the country in 1982.
They said Jaoura, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, worked in Israel for some time before he was arrested for overstaying his visa and later deported back to Jordan, which signed an unpopular peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1994.
While Jordanian opposition groups condemned the attack, the incident provided an opportunity for critics of the anti-terrorism law to feed their argument that restrictive legislation cannot prevent terror-related attacks that may destabilize the kingdom's security.
Opposition leaders, led by the Islamic Action Front and includes leftist and Arab nationalist parties, described the first anti-terror law in the Arab world as an "American recipe that will not work in an Arab country" and said it merely provides a legal cover for the intelligence and security services to have a free hand to chase those they suspect.
The law considers any direct or indirect relations with terrorist organizations inside or outside the country as an act of terror. It gives the security services a carte blanche to take measures against those the authorities believe support terror ideas, incite attacks or express sympathy for suicide bombings. These suspects may be detained without charge or trial for long periods of time without access to lawyers, which international rights groups says is already practiced in the kingdom.
Jordan started drafting the bill after the November suicide attacks on three hotels in Amman which killed 60 people and injured 100 others, claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq.
Opposition and local civil rights groups claim the law is not so much aimed at curbing and preventing possible terror attacks -- noting that the State Security Court has tried dozens of plots before they were carried out -- but at cracking down on public freedoms and restricting freedom of peaceful expression against pro-U.S. Jordanian policy.
They believe this law came after pressure by Washington and Tel Aviv to justify their so-called war on terrorism, saying the bill will only serve the United States and Israel in their reading of finding all forms of resistance against occupation and struggle for independence as acts of terror.
Opposition leaders see the law as a legal pretext to crack down on critics who would publicly defy official policies, especially regarding Jordan's widely unpopular close ties with the United States and Israel.
Analysts warn that enacting the law can backfire at a time when popular sentiments are running high against the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the American support for Israel, the escalating Israeli assault on the Palestinians and the aftermath of a recent destructive Israeli war on Lebanon.
They say curbing the constitutional right for free expression of activists and a frustrated population for fear of being suspected of terrorism could have an opposite effect, encouraging normally peaceful groups and individuals to embrace extreme ideas and methods if the laws prevent them from cathartic expression.
Independent Jordanian analysts say the shooting at the ancient Roman Amphitheater in Amman should ring alarm bells for decision-makers before the anti-terrorism law is endorsed and enacted.
They add the authorities should realize that tougher security policies and measures alone cannot prevent terror attacks, and that the likes of an individual like Jaoura cannot be traced, let alone stopped, from firing a gun at Westerners or other targets.
Security officials admitted that no security power could have prevented the man from attacking the tourists in the light of day.
One security official even privately acknowledged to United Press International that the non-Islamist gunman represents a general mood of anger that cannot be controlled.
Analysts argue that jumping on the American-led Western bandwagon in its war on terror by introducing the anti-terrorism law, in a country that is already widely seen as a police state, will not help.
They say that instead of stifling views that oppose the official Jordanian line, the government should introduce more democratic legislation allowing free expression.
Only a real democracy that respects free and peaceful expression would pull the rug from under the feet of extremists with violent trends and such extremists will find no support among Jordan's population.
