AMMAN - When the Arab Spring reached Jordan last year, a newspaper columnist, Muwafaq Mahadin, was one of the first to march with pro-democracy protestors demanding reforms in his country. He also backed Syrian demonstrators who began taking to the streets in March 2011. But a few months later, he made an about-face, aligning with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Like many other Arab intellectuals, he says he did so out of fear for the future of the region.
