2 get prison for praising dead al-Zarqawi

[Robbien]

AMMAN, JORDAN -- Jordan's military court on Sunday convicted two Islamist lawmakers of instigating sectarian strife by praising Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as a martyr.

Mohammed Abu Fares was sentenced to 2 years in prison and Ali Abu Sukkar to 11/2 years for their "provocative" remarks about the late Al Qaeda in Iraq leader during and after his wake.

The defendants provoked widespread indignation in Jordan when they paid their condolences at the family home of Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike June 7.

After the verdict was read, Abu Fares nodded his head in dismay, saying: "May God help us all."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608070199aug07,1,3292853.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

[Selatius]

1. No such thing as freedom of speech in Jordan, or Saudi Arabia, or Egypt

We have such lovely allies in the form of these autocratic thugs, don't we? Maybe this is why so many of them hate us. We support their dictators and oligarchs.

[nguoihue]

2. That's right

and that's the kind of new Middle East the neo-cons are trying to establish.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Ah yes, Jordan, that bastion of democracy -- NOT

Notice how our Arab "allies" in the ME are all run by oppressive monarchies, theocracies or military dictators, whilst the ones we've chosen to destroy were sectarian or democratically elected governments? Ironic, is it not, for a country that supposedly is hellbent on spreading "freedom and democracy" throughout the ME.