As always with King Abdullah of Jor-dan, politics is a bit of a gamble. As part of his war on Islamist extremism he wants to foster a version of the religion that is more submissive to the region's regimes. In partnership with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a military man turned Egypt's president, he is preparing to summon Muslim leaders next month to Cairo's Al Azhar, one of Sun-ni Islam's oldest seats of learning, for a summit on modernising Islam. Although their voices may be stifled by tightened anti-terrorism laws, many of his subjects are dubious. In a country where some 90% of the population is Sunni Muslim, many wonder why their monarch has joined the American-led coalition against jihadists from Islamic State (IS). "We don't understand why the king has joined the alliance against Syria's Sunnis in IS and is helping to prop up Bashar al-Assad, who has far more blood on his hands," says a Jordanian writer. After the capture by IS of a Jordanian pilot whose plane came down in Syria in December, a group of retired army officers issued statements arguing that Jordan should not be involved.
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