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Fri, Jan 28, 2011 | Ynetnews | Associated Press

People shout slogans as they demonstrate against the government in Amman January 14, 2011. Food price protests sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East reached Jordan on Friday, when hundreds of protesters chanted slogans against Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai in the southern city of Karak. Similar demonstrations were held in three other towns and cities including Amman, witnesses said. (REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed)

Wave of Mass Protests in Arab World: Jordan Next

Associated Press

Thousands of Jordanian opposition supporters took to the streets Friday [Jan 28, 2011] in the country’s capital demanding the prime minister step down and venting their anger at rising prices, inflation and unemployment.

It was the third consecutive Friday of protests following Muslim prayers in Jordan, inspired by the unrest in Tunisia and rallies in Egypt demanding the downfall of the country’s longtime president.

About 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan’s main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organizations gathered in Amman’s downtown, waving colorful banners reading: “Send the corrupt guys to court.”

The crowd denounced Prime Minister Samir Rifai’s unpopular policies. Many shouted: “Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians.”

Another 2,500 people also took to the streets in six other cities across the country after the noon prayers. Those protests also called for Rifai’s ouster.

Members of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and Jordan’s largest opposition party, swelled the ranks of the demonstrators, massing outside the al-Husseini mosque in Amman and filling the downtown streets with their prayer lines.

As they broke into a procession, the demonstrators chanted, “In the name of God, the government must change” and the Muslim holy book “Quran is our constitution, jihad is our path.”

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