Restaurant ordered shut for serving Christians during Ramadan

A popular restaurant at the German-Jordanian University in a suburb of Amman, Jordan, has been ordered closed because workers there served food.

According to the investigative team at the Middle East Media Research Institute, a video confirmed the closure and the arrests of several workers.

The video shows the Jordanian security forces raiding a restaurant that was serving food during the Ramadan fast. Several students who were dining there and several of the restaurant employees were arrested, and the restaurant was then closed, MEMRI reported.

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"According to Jordanian law, serving food during the Ramadan fast is permitted only to establishments catering to tourists and Christians that have obtained a special license from the Ministry of Tourism," MEMRI said.

"The license requires the establishments to serve food behind closed doors, or else in a secluded area hidden from the public's view. The Tourism Ministry has authorized local governors to enforce the law and punish restaurants that violate it. Section 274 of Jordan's Penal Code states that anyone who breaks the law can be subject to a fine and to imprisonment for up to a month."

Officials argue that the university cafe "violated the law by failing to conceal the diners or keep its doors closed. Eye witnesses report that the security officers were violent towards the diners, some of them were wearing cross pendants identifying them as Christians, and called them 'infidels.'"

The attack brought a variety of reactions from officials.

The video:

According to MEMRI, Oraib Al-Rantawi, director of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies in Amman and columnist for the daily Al-Dustour, wrote that the conduct of the security forces reflected the "schizophrenia" of the Jordanian government, "which purports to fight extremism yet at the same time allows security officers to behave like Salafi-jihadi extremists."

He wrote that the incident seemed like "a raid of the religious police in the guise of a raid by the law-enforcement agencies."

"It is as though we are dealing with 'the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice' [the Saudi religious police] or with Hamas's illegal police force [in Gaza]. ... Sadly, this happened in Jordan while all the talk about a civil state and the rule of law, the fight against extremism, and the safeguarding of pluralism and of freedom of thought, expression and conscience is at its height."

He pointed out that the criminal code prohibits eating in public during Ramadan, but the law in that case contradicts "the licenses granted to certain businesses that cater to tourists which permit them to operate during the day in the month of Ramadan."

"So which law should be followed in this case? Moreover, [even] assuming that the students broke the law, does anyone have the right to brand them as 'infidels'? Who gave the police the right to accuse people of heresy?"

But Dima Tareq Tahboub, spokeswoman for the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, thanked government officials for the prosecution of those both serving and eating food.

"Jordanian society is a civilized society in which respect and general etiquette are customary, not only because it is the law, but also because of [our] upbringing and respect for religion, custom, tradition, and the elderly that characterize [our society] and are deeply ingrained in it. Unfortunately, in recent years, we have begun to notice behaviors foreign to Jordanian society that harm the strength of its social fabric, which is anchored in religion, morality, and convention – all of which are protected by the law that punishes those who act inappropriately. Because of [these virtues], Jordan has preserved its unique characteristics and its reputation..." she wrote.

The official government response was that the restaurant violated regulations by serving meals without concealing the diners or closing the doors.