The leadership of every country, together with the enlightened national forces of society, must confront terrorism and strive to reduce the chances of its emergence.
How great the difference between a state in which unrest has become the norm and another whose norm is to confront the impulses of unrest and to face down every form of terrorism the moment it strikes. Yet the Arab concern, the Arab wound, remains one, from the ocean to the Gulf and from the Levant to Yemen.
That is why the Arabs- Yemen among them- and the whole world stand in solidarity with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after the terrorist attack on the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate, southern Jordan, on Friday, October 23, 2026.
In a scene that proves a leader's engagement and his sense of responsibility, the exercise of his familiar role toward his country and his citizens, and that embodies a genuine consolation easing the weight of their ordeal, King Abdullah bin al-Hussein appeared in his military uniform visiting the wounded and injured.
When terrorist incidents occur, you see a strong and effective leadership stride onto the field, while the "rats of chaos" hide with their shame in their holes and caves, before an iron hand reaches them.
"With an iron hand, we will strike anyone who dares to overstep against this country," King Abdullah II declared, affirming the preservation of the state's authority and the cohesion of the Jordanian entity against attempts to tear apart, divide, terrify, and intimidate the sons of a single people that respects its religious diversity and rises above political difference.
Taking account of the causes of difference and tending the forms of diversity are the clearest signs of the capacity to bear national responsibility in states of stability, along with full awareness of the potential dangers.
The free and stable states- Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf states, and Egypt along with some states of the Maghreb- use every capacity for endurance they possess to avoid wars of attrition. And if a peaceful solution proves impossible, or the necessary calm cannot be achieved, and excess passes all bounds, the resolute authorities decide on deterrence and on excising any "organic part" that threatens stability and shakes the edifice of internal peace.
Why must terrorism be fought, and how can the chances of its re-emergence be reduced?
During the 1970s and 1980s, the central regions of North Yemen witnessed terrorist incidents and acts of sabotage carried out by ideological political groups backed by the southern half of Yemen. They sought to achieve unity, and had other political aims of an extremist form incompatible with the requirements of regional stability.
That extremist approach planted mines across central North Yemen during the last century and carried out the most heinous assassinations abroad and at home. It was then that the late Educator of Yemen, Ahmad Muhammad Noaman, issued his call:
"Fight terrorism in all its forms and shapes, so that the authority of the state does not fall, and the homeland fall with it."
Whoever is lenient with error is forced to live with danger. So fight every form of terrorism by every means, so that the homeland does not fall, whether in Yemen or in Jordan, or in other stable states and those trying to recover their stability and their authority.
So long as terrorism raises the horns of religious sectarian strife over a country marked by diversity, such as Jordan with its mountains and its sea, and extends the arm of sectarianism into a center known for moderation, such as Yemen's Taiz governorate with its mountains and its sea, the leadership of every country, together with the enlightened national forces of society, must confront it and strive to reduce the chances of its emergence.
"Fight terrorism," and resist it with the spirit of national culture and openness to the other, with commitment to the laws and the constitution, and with support for every sincere leadership that protects its homeland and safeguards its citizens' right to a safe life free of unrest.
