King Abdullah Calls for Interfaith Tolerance

Washington, DC (September 21, 2005) - Jordan's King Abdullah II met today with Jewish-American religious leaders, continuing an unprecedented series of interfaith dialogues intended to combat global division and promote understanding among Muslim, Christian and Jewish believers. In his meetings, His Majesty King Abdullah II called for an open and honest interfaith dialogue, to replace the notion of a clash
of civilizations and interfaith tension. "It is only by adopting this attitude that we can combat the extremist threat and live in peace with each other," the King said.

Yesterday, His Majesty met with Muslim American leaders at the Islamic
Cultural Center in Washington, where the King encouraged Muslim-Americans to
work for peace, tolerance, and coexistence, and congratulated Muslim-Americans on their continuing efforts to reject violence perpetrated in the name of religion and to rectify the image of Islam in American society. Earlier, the King met with Christian leaders in Washington and New York, where he delivered speeches at the Catholic University of America and Riverside Church, respectively.

King Abdullah's interfaith meetings are part of an international initiative against religious tension and extremism. En route to the United States, His Majesty met with Pope Benedict XVI at the papal summer retreat Castel Gandolfo, in which both leaders agreed on the need to continue working to build bridges of understanding and interfaith coexistence. Pointing to the shared values of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, King Abdullah stressed that followers and scholars of the three monotheistic religions need to work in harmony to combat violence and extremism and challenge those who abuse religion to justify their wrongdoings. "At one
time or another, all religions have faced extremists who abuse the power of faith," comments King Abdullah. "We must show zero tolerance towards those who promote extremism."

Jordan has led efforts with the international Islamic community to reclaim moderate Islam from fringe extremist groups and to oppose extremist interpretations of the religious text. His Majesty underlined the importance of the historic Amman Message, which articulates Islam's core teachings on peace, tolerance and justice. He also discussed the International Islamic Conference that was held in Amman last July, which was attended by Islamic scholars from 45 countries representing all Madhahib of Sunni, Shi'ite and Ibadi Islam. The final declaration of this conference, signed by 180 Islamic scholars, reaffirmed the traditional qualifications
for issuing a fatwa and proclaimed that "no one can call another Muslim an
apostate -- as the extremists do to those who disagree with them."