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October 11, 2001

QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN EXPLAINS "TRUE ISLAM" ON "OPRAH WINFREY SHOW"

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent
ASSIST News Service

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (ANS) -- Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan was recently a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on CBS television and took great pains to explain to the studio and television audience some of the misconceptions most people have of Islam and the Muslim faith.

During the October 5 "Oprah" show featuring Queen Rania, who is the wife of Jordan's King Abdullah II, Ms. Winfrey said:"When this first happened on September 11, I think it came as a shock to so many of us that other people in the world hated us so much. Can you help explain that to us?" (Pictured: Queen Rania receives flowers from school children - photo courtesy of Petra News Agency).

Queen Rania responded:" I think it's very important that you realize that for the majority of Muslims, they do not hate Americans. They do not hate the American way of life. In fact, many countries look at the American model as one that needs to be replicated, one that they aspire to achieve.

"We are talking about a minority of people who feel that they have been unjustly treated by the United States. Some of them feel that U.S. foreign policy might have been partial and not completely fair to all parties involved, and they wanted their voice to be heard. Unfortunately, the means that they have used are ones that are condemned all over the Arab world.

"We do not approve of these terrorist acts or any gruesome activities like the ones we saw on September 11. The American people have to realize that the whole world is with them, they feel with them. They are not hated by the rest of the world. Some people feel unfairly treated, but I think that dialogue is the way to understand each other and to reach out to each other," the Queen said.

Ms. Winfrey then told the audience:"What we're trying to do on this show today is to bring about an understanding of what it's like to be Muslim in the world, and what is Islam. I think there's a lot of confusion. You're very westernized, and then we see women wearing the hoods, the burqas and the hijabs. What makes one acceptable, and the other not? Are you accepted in your country not wearing the scarves? What does the scarf represent?"

"I'd really like to commend you for having Islam as the subject of your show. I think this is the right time to reach out and have this open, ongoing dialogue about different religions," answered Queen Rania.

"[Just] like in Christianity, there are different interpretations of Islam, and there are different degrees of conservatism. It's a personal choice. Some people are more conservative than others. The important thing is the spirit of Islam. That is all about tolerance, about doing good, diversity, quality, and human dignity," she said.

The Queen went on:"The fact that Islam is very tolerant means that it doesn't impose anything on other people. You are supposed to behave in a certain way, or dress in a certain way out of conviction, not because somebody imposes their own ideology on you. I believe one's relationship with God, and how one chooses to practice religion, is an intensely personal choice."

"So you as an individual choose whether or not you want to be robed or not robed, or wear your head covered or not? That's not imposed upon you by your religion?" asked Ms. Winfrey.

"In our country, that is what we believe," said the Queen."We give women the choice to wear the headscarf or not. It's a personal choice. As I said, it is not the state that is supposed to impose on individuals what they believe in. That is their own personal choice."

Asked by Ms. Winfrey if the Queen was a practicing Muslim, Queen Rania said:"Yes, very much so. Muslims are required to pray five times a day. We fast the holy month of Ramadan, which is, I guess, equivalent to Lent in Christianity. We are meant to give to charity. Once in our lifetime, we have to make a pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca. These are the basic principles and practices of Islam. But more importantly, Islam is about spiritual fulfillment, about morals, about trying to purify your soul. That is something that has to be very much emphasized."

Ms. Winfrey asked the Queen what life is like for Muslim women in Jordan. "I think we all have a misinterpretation that the women wearing the robes are dominated by men, that the women don't have a voice of their own. Is any part of that true?" she said.

The Queen responded:"In Jordan, women lead a very free life. We find the level of education for men and women in Jordan is equal. We have women who participate in the business sector, in government, in the armed forces, in the police force, women judges. They're very much free to choose what kind of life they want to lead. The lives that they lead here are very similar to those that you see in other countries in the world.

"That is not to say that they don't have challenges, but I think that the challenges that women face in Jordan are very similar to those that you see in other countries in the world, particularly developing countries. The obstacles that they face are more social or cultural hindrances. Women in our part of the world have to be encouraged to be more confident, to voice their concerns, to fight for their legal rights, and to do what the women in the States and in Europe did: try to gain their rights by voicing their concerns and fighting for them," the Queen said.

Responding to a question about "honor killings," Queen Rania said: "It's very important for me to clarify that honor killings are not in any way condoned or accepted in Islam. They are, in fact, un-Islamic. These are more cultural and social aspects that we have to deal with here.

"What we're looking to do here in Jordan, and our voices have been heard and many people have been rallying, is to try to explain the whole issue of honor killings, and to try to explain where Islam stands [on] this issue. Once we have this open dialogue and we reach to the grassroots where people can understand this issue, we are hoping through democratic process to change these laws that we have in Jordan," the Queen said.

She added:"The problem was the fact that people didn't understand what honor killings were and how often they were happening and all the dimensions of the issue. We need more public awareness about the issue and that's what we're doing right now. It's only a matter of time before these laws that you're referring to are going to be changed."

Quoting a Newsweek magazine article reporting that there are some Muslim fundamentalists that see the Queen as a threat by saying, "She is attacking our ancient values, tearing at our social fabrics as a member of our moderate Muslim brotherhood," Ms. Winfrey asked the Queen how she responded to that ?

"You find fundamentalists and extremism in every religion and these are the people on the fringes. They are expressing their own point of view, a personal point of view. I believe in what I am doing. It's my personal choice. I feel that people of my country accept me the way that I am, and I hope the rest of the world will see it that way. I cannot really answer to these kinds of things because everybody is entitled to his own opinion.

Ms. Winfrey then asked the Queen: "Do you feel that you represent a large portion of the Arab world in terms of women being progressive, forward-looking, being smart, thinking for themselves?"

"There is a large portion of women who are like that. As I said earlier, I think that the challenges that women face in our part of the world are more related to some social and cultural constraints. These are the issues that we need to deal with. Religion provides equality for women. Islam views women as full and equal partners to men, so [women's] rights are guaranteed by Islam. It's up to us to try to make use of these rights, to try to voice our concerns and make sure that we achieve our full rights," aid the Queen.

"So anything that we see that doesn't represent what you're saying is a distortion of Islam, correct?" asked Ms. Winfrey.

"Absolutely. I think that is what extremism is. Extremists are on the fringes of religion. By nature, Islam and the Qur'an, which is the holy book in our religion, came to apply to humankind at any point in history, which means it is open to interpretation. I feel that a lot of these extremists have taken this as a way to justify and to twist the facts in Islam to  justify their own actions and their own beliefs, and in many cases to fulfill their own political agendas."
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** Michael Ireland is a British freelance journalist in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two children. Michael is a frequent contributor to United Christian Broadcasters, Europe Radio, a British Christian radio station. E-mail: mireland@usfamily.net.

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** A JPEG photograph of Queen Rania, courtesy of Petra News Agency, is available upon request to Michael Ireland at mireland@usfamily.net .

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