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ABDULLAH-PRAYER (CORRECTED) Feb-6-2006 (950 words) With photo posted Feb. 3. xxxn
Jordan's king talks Islamic moderation to evangelical Christian group
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan took his efforts to promote moderation in Islam to the evangelical-dominated National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Feb. 2, earning a standing ovation with a speech that quoted the Bible as much as the Quran.
He called upon people of faith to witness to its positive role in public life by being an example of "the principles transgressed by those who oppose us."
"In every generation, people of faith are tested," King Abdullah said. "In our generation, the greatest challenge comes from violent extremists who seek to divide and conquer. Extremism is a political movement under religious cover.
"Its adherents want nothing more than to pit us against each other, denying all that we have in common," he continued. "We must therefore heed the words of the New Testament: 'Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'"
After ascending to the throne of Jordan upon the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein, King Abdullah has aggressively prodded Islamic leaders toward a uniform message reflecting the moderate beliefs of the vast majority of Muslims, as an antidote to the Islamic extremism associated with terrorism.
In July 2005, he convened an International Islamic Summit to clarify what Islam does and doesn't allow, who is a Muslim and who can speak for Islam.
What resulted is known as the Amman Message, a declaration recognizing the common principles of eight traditional schools of Islamic religious law. It was signed by more than 180 scholars representing 45 countries.
King Abdullah followed that effort with the Amman Interfaith Message, intended to both defuse tensions among Muslims, Christians and Jews and to work toward full acceptance and good will among them.
In speeches last fall at The Catholic University of America and to a group of American Jewish leaders, the king outlined an interfaith message based upon the shared beliefs of Islam, Christianity and Judaism: belief in one God, worship and devotion to God, and love and justice toward other human beings.
At the prayer breakfast, King Abdullah described the principles in a "Reaffirmation of True Islam" adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last year, as part of a 10-year plan for the future of the Islamic world.
"This strikes at the very roots of extremism by denying its Islamic legitimacy, and consolidates the traditional middle ground of Islam, to which the vast majority of Muslims belong," he said. "It constitutes a full frontal assault on extremist distortions of Islam by exposing the falsity of their ideologies to the light of truth."
Nothing would please extremists more than for terrorist events, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, last summer's subway and bus bombings in London and Spain's train bombings, to reinforce the idea of a "clash of civilizations," King Abdullah said. But the falsity of the notion that religious differences are responsible for such a clash "is made clear to all by the extremist bombings in the Islamic world ... in Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and more."
Extremists in Iraq kill Muslims every day, he said. "Their targets are not Christians, not Jews, not Americans or Europeans, but indigenous innocent Muslims."
Such violence stems from hatred, he said, not from true religious faith.
"They do not preach the Islam of the Quran or the prophet Mohammed," he said. "Theirs is a repugnant political ideology which violates the principles and statutes of traditional Islamic law. No matter what grievance one may have or what evil one confronts, the Quran commands us: 'Let not the hatred of others make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just! It is closer to piety.'"
The king said extremists of any religion "who teach intolerance and violence mutilate Scripture to advance their cause. We behold with horror and disgust the recent targeting of Christian churches in Iraq, breaking with a 1,400-year tradition of Christian-Muslim friendship and mutual acceptance among the Arabs of (the region.)"
He added that "while we respect and revere freedom of speech, we condemn needless desecration and injury of Islamic sensibilities, such as the recent cartoons misrepresenting and vilifying my ancestor, the prophet (Mohammed)."
The original publication in a Danish newspaper and recent reprinting elsewhere of satirical cartoons of Mohammed have stirred an outcry across the Muslim world. Muslims consider any images of Mohammed to be blasphemous.
"If we allow such intolerance and ill will to polarize us, we betray all those who have died at their hands," he continued. "And we do worse. We turn away from truth -- truth expressed throughout our Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage. 'For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit,'" he said, quoting from the Gospel of Luke.
The National Prayer Breakfast's main morning session has long been attended by political and religious leaders from many faiths -- this year it was co-hosted by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is Jewish, and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who is Christian. King Abdullah, a Muslim, joined Christians and Jews in offering prayers during the breakfast.
President George W. Bush spoke briefly at the morning session, where the keynote speaker was Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2 and an activist for eliminating poverty and disease worldwide.
But the king's major speech was at a luncheon program where the audience was more typical of the event's roots among white evangelical Christians. His talk followed testimonials by two politicians about their Christian faith.
The National Prayer Breakfast draws thousands of participants from across the United States and around the world to a conference lasting several days each winter.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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