Jordanian king carves out a niche in rallying religious understanding

Published: 2006-02-03

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Jordan's King Abdullah II, a direct descendant of Islam's prophet Mohammed, speaks about how Islam is perceived in the broader world, his voice carries weight. As he put it in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 2, the manipulation of religious beliefs by "extremists of any religion, who teach intolerance and violence (and) mutilate Scripture to advance their cause," has been a continuing theme for the king since soon after he ascended to the throne in 1999 -- long before the world's attention was focused on Islamic extremism by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In newspaper opinion pieces and in speeches around the world and at home, the king has emphasized that "religion in itself does not cause war; its fanatic followers do," as he said in a 1999 address to the World Conference on Religion and Peace. King Abdullah backed up his words with actions, calling together 180 leading Islamic scholars to a 2005 summit at which they signed a unanimous declaration on how to define Islam, who is a Muslim and who can speak for Islam.

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