Pat Dollard

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Times Online:

The father received the bearded mourners with dry eyes, his grief tempered by the conviction that his son, a martyr to the cause of al-Qaeda’s jihad, was already in Heaven.

It is a common enough spectacle in the Islamist badlands of the Middle East or Central Asia — but yesterday’s funeral was not in Afghanistan, nor even Pakistan. The farewell to Mahmoud Zaydan, 35, a teacher of Arabic and the Koran who was killed at the weekend by a US drone in Waziristan, Pakistan, took place in the peaceful Jordanian town of Irbid.

Jordan has long been one of America’s closest allies in the region but only recently have Jordanians discovered how close to home the War on Terror is being waged. A suicide bombing last month at a CIA base in Afghanistan, perpetrated by a Jordanian double agent — and targeting, along with seven CIA officers, a fellow Jordanian — has put the country on the international terror map.

It exposed Jordan’s close ties with US intelligence; a realisation that shocked and angered many Muslims in the country, normally seen as an oasis of peace in the turbulent area. At yesterday’s funeral, the family of the dead al-Qaeda member had nothing but scorn for their Government’s alliance with America. “The United States is fighting Muslims everywhere,” the dead man’s father, Mahdi Zaydan, said. “They’ll fight to defend themselves and drive the Americans out, like the Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan.”

Mr Zaydan said that his son had studied Sharia in Jordan before travelling to Pakistan in 1999 to teach Arabic and the Koran, and to pursue his studies. In the city of Peshawar, he fell in with members of the Taleban. His family does not know exactly how he came to join al-Qaeda but said that he had served the terrorist organisation as a preacher and spiritual adviser; a job often involving recruitment, indoctrination and finding scriptural justification for the blood shed in God’s name.

“He was there to provide education and guidance to the youth,” said his younger brother, Muhammad, 25.

His other brother, Ibrahim, fought for the Taleban and was arrested in Kabul by the Americans in 2001, and held at Guantánamo Bay for more than five years. He was released two years ago and was present at the funeral yesterday in a former Palestinian refugee camp that has grown into a permanent neighbourhood of Irbid.

“Al-Qaeda and the Taleban are accepted here as fighters who want to drive the enemy out,” Muhammad said. He was not sure whether he would follow in his brothers’ footsteps, he said, aware that he would probably be picked up by the security services if he admitted any such ambition.

In his opinion, the Jordanian Government was “absolutely on the wrong side” by helping the Americans. The sentiment is shared by many devout Jordanian Muslims, especially those of Palestinian origin, such as Humam al-Balawi, the CIA suicide bomber, according to Rohile Gharaiheh, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. “The ones who joined the jihad did so because of the Palestinian issue, but it can also affect Jordanians because they don’t know where their Government sends their sons,” he said, referring to al-Balawi’s recruitment by the Jordanian intelligence service. “The Government is making these terrorists; the Government is trying to please the Americans.”