Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah
Interview with Larry King
Live
November 9, 2001
KING: It's a pleasure now to
welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE, Queen Rania of Jordan. She comes to us from
London. She's the wife, of course, of King Abdullah II of Jordan, accompanying
him on a three- day state visit to the United Kingdom.
What has this been like for you, this trip?
QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN: Oh, this has been a great visit. It's been very
successful and very productive. We've had the chance to discuss with the British
side some of the outstanding bilateral issues, some political and economic
issues. So it's been very successful.
KING: The queen of England on Tuesday lauded your husband, saying --
praising his steadfast support of the international coalition, help in
persuading others this is not a conflict between Islam and the West. Is that,
Your Majesty, the most difficult thing to get across to people -- that it's not
between a religion and a portion of the world?
QUEEN RANIA: I think it is a very important concept to get across to everybody.
This is not a clash of civilizations. It is not a war between the West and
Islam. And I think President Bush has made that very clear right from the very
beginning.
However, it is very important for both sides to engage. There is still a gap I
think between the Western world and our part of the world. This gap needs to be
closed in. We need to have more dialogue and we need to explain each other's
points of view. It needs to be made clear to our part of the world that this is
not a war against Islam. In fact, we know there really is no clash. Christianity
is not a Western religion. In fact, Jesus Christ was born in our part of the
world.
So we really need to focus on the real issues here, and make sure it's very
clear to people's minds that we are all standing together against the danger
that this presents to all of us.
KING: So are the people who are committing atrocities and violence in the
name of the Muslims totally going against their own religion?
QUEEN RANIA: Well, I think it's very important to realize here that Islam has
really been a victim in this. It has been a victim in two ways.
First of all, we have had some extremists who have distorted the image of Islam
and have really presented it in its harshest form; stripped it of its
spirituality and humanity and really used it as a platform to air their own
political agendas and radical views. They have taken a religion that is
essentially pure, one that builds on Christianity and Judaism, and they have
contaminated it with their own radical points of view. So that is one way that
it has been distorted.
The other way is I think the rest of the world, in an attempt to make sense of
what has happened on the 11th of September, have tried to explain it by blaming
Islam. And that is an oversimplification, I think, and a generalization of the
problem. The problem is a result of an interplay of many different factors, many
complex issues are at hand here. And as a result, we cannot just pigeon-hole the
problem or explain it in terms of sound bites.
It is very important for us to educate ourselves about Islam to understand that
it is a religion of peace, compassion and tolerance, and to realize that Islam,
in and of itself, is not a threat to the world.
KING: One of the difficulties, Your Majesty, it puts the West in is --
let's take Ramadan. Do you bomb during a major holy series of days or do you
not? If you're not fighting -- in other words, what do you do with that
quandary?
QUEEN RANIA: Well, you know, Ramadan is a holy month. It is a month where
Muslims fast. It is a month of cleansing one's soul and praying to God. It is a
very sensitive issue, bombing during the month of Ramadan. I think for all of
us, the most important thing is for us to try to end the conflict as soon as
possible. The sooner we end it, the less aggravation there will be.
It is important to realize that people in our part of the world, when they look
at the war, they look at it not necessarily through a political lenses, but
rather the humanitarian point of view. I think we've all seen images of young
children who have been hurt, of people who've lost their homes, people whose
lives have been uprooted. And I think that is an emotional aspect and people are
very concerned about that. So the sooner we can end this, the better.
KING: And we do have, do we not, a looming disaster here in the
humanitarian end with the coming of winter?
QUEEN RANIA: Absolutely. I think in the best of times, the Afghani people do
not have it easy. And we have to realize that we have to do our utmost to try to
help the innocent people. This is not a war against Afghanis, and that has to be
made very clear.
KING: Has this, in your opinion, set back the question of Israel and the
Palestinian state and that whole portion of the Middle East? Has the occurrences
of September 11 set that back?
QUEEN RANIA: I think it's very important to realize that the main issue in our
part of the world, the main source of anger, frustration, is the Middle East
conflict. It's incumbent on all of us to try to work as hard as possible to
ensure that we get a just and lasting comprehensive peace in our part of the
world. We have to return back to the U.N. resolutions of 242 and 338, and make
sure that we stop the settlements and really get back to the negotiating table.
It's impossible for anyone to predict whether the events of September 11
would've taken place had there been peace in the Middle East. But I believe that
even if we do take care of the terrorists in Afghanistan, in the absence of a
Middle East peace, then it's only a matter of time before new terrorists come on
the stage. So it is very important for us to really reach a just and peaceful
solution in our part of the world. KING: And you're saying this for all parties,
because there are many, President Bush included, who think that Mr. Arafat also
has a lot to do in that regard.
QUEEN RANIA: I think all sides have a part to do. And I think we are all tired
of the finger-pointing. We really want to see the two sides sitting on the
table.
International support is very important in this case. The international
community has to rally together and make sure that we do reach this peace in our
part of the world.
I think people here have suffered for far too long on the ground. There has been
so much injustice. People are feeling very hopeless and tired, and they really
to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
In our part of the world, the main frustration has been that the people have not
seen the dividends of peace. They have not been able to look forward to a
brighter future. And we really need to give them that opportunity.
KING: Your Majesty, do you see yourself and your family in danger since
Jordan is, kind of, a peace broker in this, and has that difficult of, kind of,
straggling a thin line sometimes? Are you concerned for yourself?
QUEEN RANIA: Well, Larry, I think these are very strange times. I think
everyone in the world feels a sense of unsafety. We're all feeling quite
nostalgic for our pre-9/11 days, when we didn't have to worry about getting on
planes, and we didn't know what anthrax was. So it is a very difficult time for
the whole world. And I hope that we can rise above -- we're at the very low
point at this stage, and I hope we can rise above this and, out of adversity,
find a brighter future.
What I am beginning to feel is that we really should not tolerate extremism in
our world. Extremism is very dangerous, and I'm not just talking about religious
extremism, but also political. When extremists engage in their hardline views,
they do so at an expense to us, the rest of us who want to live our lives in
peace. When they try to rally support and mobilize the masses, using anger and
frustration as fuel, then that represents a danger to the rest of us. So we
should not tolerate extremism in any form.
KING: When you were last with us, you told us you were going to try to
keep the images of September 11 away from your children. As this has progressed
now to almost two months, how has that worked?
QUEEN RANIA: Well, you know, it's still very difficult, Larry, to speak to
children about this issue. The most important thing I've tried to explain to my
children is that when you disagree with somebody, you not necessarily resolve
your differences through violence. That is the wrong way to go.
We have to teach our children not to hate. They have to be able to grow up and
realize that they may have differences, but in many ways, our differences can
enrich us, and we have to embrace them.
So it is a difficult talk to have with young children, but I hope -- we all have
to work very, very hard to make sure that, by the time our children are adults,
that they will never have to witness what we have had to witness.
KING: With all you live with and see around you, is it hard for you to be
optimistic?
QUEEN RANIA: Not at all, I think that, in fact, this is a very -- this is an
important time in our history when we have developed a global moral
consciousness, a real sense that what happens in other parts of the world
concerns us; that one day, if we do not solve the injustice and the grievances
in other parts of the world, if those are not addressed, then they could come
back and hurt us.
And I think that that is a positive thing for us to really sensitize ourselves
to the rest of the world, to look with concerned and objective eyes at some of
the injustice committed in other parts of the world. That is a positive feeling,
and I hope that we can build on that and therefore make sure that there is more
justice and people are having a better chance in life.
KING: Thank you, Your Highness. It's always good seeing you.
QUEEN RANIA: Thank you, Larry. It's a pleasure to be here.
KING: Queen Rania of Jordan. She will attend Sunday the opening of the
Arab Women's Summit taking place in Cairo.
We'll close it out with Billy Ray Cyrus next on LARRY KING LIVE. Stay right with
us.