AMMAN, Feb 24 (AFP) - More than 30 members of Jordan's lower house retracted Thursday their support for a motion to implement Islamic law in Jordan, legislators said.
The motion was signed Wednesday by 55 of the chamber's 80 members, in what was seen as a warning to the country's leadership against interfering in legislative affairs.
Some of the more than half who recanted said that they changed their minds on reflection; others said that they had not paid sufficient attention to the text of the motion.
A similar motion was submitted in 1991, which was ignored by the government. But unlike then, when around a third of the MPs were Islamists, only five independent Islamists now sit in the chamber after a boycott of the 1997 elections.
The motion was sent to parliamentary speaker Abdel Hadi Majali for delivery to the Cabinet, but a legislator admitted Wednesday that the chances of the government following up on it were "almost zero."
One legislator said Thursday the motion was a reaction to involvement of the royal family in efforts to make parliament repeal article 340 of the criminal code on so-called honor killings.
Article 340 provides for exemption or reduced punishment for a man who kills a female relative who allegedly besmirches the family honor through an adulterous relationship.
The participation by two princes in a demonstration against Article 340 10 days ago was intended "to make the chamber to bow, which triggered a negative reaction in the house," one legislator said.
"The motion's message is: If you continue to interfere, we will brandish the threat of implementing Islamic law," he added.
A Cabinet member said: "The overwhelming majority of the legislators who signed this document are independents close to those higher up and don't normally back Islamist positions."
This shows that "The goal isn't the implementation of Islamic law but to send a political message," he added.
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a half-brother of King Abdullah II and president of the Jordanian football federation, and Prince Ghazi bin Mohamad, a cousin of the monarch and his advisor on tribal affairs, led the February 14 protest to urge the legislature to scrap Article 340.
They then headed a delegation that delivered a petition to legislators, who had already refused to repeal the controversial law last year.
Independent Islamist legislator Abdel Majid al-Aktash said, "We don't harbor any illusions about it, but it's an initiative of the Islamic legislators expressing a position of principle that should be defended regularly."
Jordanian Information Minister Saleh Kallab, asked if the motion constituted a challenge to the executive on honor crimes, said "each person can explain this matter according to his opinion."
He told the press that "The motion does not commit the government or the legislature, it's a non-binding recommendation for both parties."
