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Jordan’s King Abdullah II to Address the Islamic Society of North America

Chicago, IL August 31, 2005 -- His Majesty King Abdullah II will deliver, for the first time, a taped address to the 42nd Annual Convention of The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) on Friday September 2, 2005. The Jordanian Monarch will express his gratitude to American Muslims for their work and endless efforts to
correct the image of Islam in the United States and beyond, and encourage them to continue working within the American system to improve the lives of all Muslims and all Americans alike.

The address comes one week in advance of His Majesty’s upcoming visit to the United States where he will deliver speeches to Jewish, Christian and Muslim
audiences. En route to the US, King Abdullah will also meet with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to build on the strong relations that Jordan had established with
Pope John Paul II, and discuss ways in which Muslims and Christians can continue to work together for peace, tolerance and coexistence.

His Majesty King Abdullah’s remarks will build on the Amman Message on Islam, launched in November 2004, as well as the International Islamic Conference on “True Islam and its Role in Modern Society” hosted by King Abdullah II in Amman, Jordan July 4-6, 2005. In the signed final declaration of this conference, over 180 scholars representing 45 countries—supported by fatwas garnered beforehand from 17 of the world’s major Islamic scholars including the Shaykh Al-Azhar, Grand Ayatollah Sistani and Sheikh Yusef Al-Qardawi—achieved a unanimous consensus condemning the practice known as takfir (calling others “apostates”) that is used by extremists to justify violence. The declaration also recognized the legitimacy of all eight of the traditional schools of Islamic religious law (madhhabs) from the Sunni, Shi’i and Ibadi branches of Islam, and identified their common principles and beliefs. It then defined the necessary qualifications and conditions for issuing fatwas, thereby exposing the illegitimacy of the so-called fatwas justifying terrorism that are issued ‘outside’ of the traditional schools of Islamic religious law and in clear violation of Islam’s core principles.