Hamza Mansour takes over Jordan’s Brotherhood after Bani Arshid

Hamza Mansour was elected leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council in Jordan on December 6, to replace Zaki Bani Arshid, who resigned from his post as doves and the center dominate the Islamist group. That would trigger a conflict between doves and hawks especially after Murad Al-Adayleh, a hawk, was elected as head of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.

There has been a conflict between hawks and doves within the Muslim Brotherhood. The two Brotherhood wings are led by Mansour (dove) and Al-Adayleh.   

Despite what has been said about Mansour’s moderate vision, he follows the footsteps of the Muslim Brotherhood. In an interview with the Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi published in 2014, Mansour said there was an intellectual and emotional harmony among the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide, citing political and administrative links to the Brotherhood organization in Egypt.

“The Egypt’s Brotherhood was a banned group for long time under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. Therefore, the situation is not new to them,” Mansour said.

He has claimed that Jordan’s Brotherhood represents the moderate Islam. The election of a new Brotherhood Shura Council president comes against a backdrop of political isolation of Jordan's Brotherhood and regional turmoil, which imposes a civil state ideology.

Hamza, who was born in 1944 in al-Mansi village in Fadaa  Haifa, was announced as the leader of Brotherhood Shura Council by the group's spokesperson, Moaz al-Khawaldeh.

“Jordan’s Muslims Brotherhood held an ordinary meeting and elected Abu Assem to replace Zaki Bani Arshid, who resigned a few months ago, after he had spent half his tenure. Hamza Mansour will take over or the remaining period of two years,” al-Khawaldeh said.

 Al-Khawaldeh said in a statement that 91 members of the Brotherhood’s Shura Council, the highest legislative and supervisory authority in Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, had voted without revealing how many votes Mansour won.