His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday addressed the plenary session of the 71st UN General Assembly meeting in New York, saying that the parliamentary elections held on the same day represented a new step on the path of reform, giving much of the credit for their success to citizens.

King Abdullah said: “As I stand here today, elections to Jordan’s national parliament are coming to a conclusion. It is one more step on our country’s positive, evolutionary path — a path to which we have insistently conformed, despite regional turbulence and a massive refugee burden.”

 “It represents an achievement that is largely credited to our citizens - especially our young people – who have stubbornly held on to Jordan’s heritage of unity, strength and forward-looking spirit in spite of the odds. And it is these very odds that make these elections a true triumph of progress over regression.”

In the speech, the King highlighted the need to address the terror and extremism threat, warning that there are forces at play, in the region and beyond, whose sole purpose is to “stack the odds against the core values that bind our common humanity”.

“I, of course, refer to the network of extremist terrorists who have dominated headlines lately and seek global dominance as well. They want to wipe out our achievements and those of our ancestors; to erase human civilisation and drag us back to the Dark Ages”.

His Majesty acknowledged that the world has not done enough to confront this threat with a counternarrative that leaves a legacy to the generations to come. The King blamed part of this failure to misunderstanding of Islam shown by friends and allies.

“I am struck, today, after several years facing the global war on terror, with the lack of understanding of the true nature of Islam that I find among many Western officials, think tanks, media leaders and policymakers. I find myself stating the obvious again and again: False perceptions of Islam and of Muslims will fuel the terrorists’ agenda of a global struggle, by polarising and factionalising societies, East and West — each side stigmatising the other; each driven deeper into mistrust and intolerance.”

On the backdrop of such misconceptions, Muslims have a key role to play in the future of the planet.

“Muslim men and women bring to the world a rich heritage of civic responsibility, justice, generosity, family life and faith in God. When others exclude Muslims from fulfilling their role, by prejudice or ignorance of what Islam is — or on the other hand, when the outlaws of Islam, the khawarej, attempt to mislead some Muslims, by deforming our religion through false teaching — our societies’ future is put at risk.”

Explaining the true nature of the Muslim faith, the king told his high-profile audience:

“Islam teaches that all humanity is equal in dignity. There is no distinction among different nations or regions or races,” adding that Muslims believe in the divine origin of the Bible and the Torah and that the khawarej deliberately hide these truths about Islam in order to drive Muslims and non-Muslims apart.
To confront this non-traditional enemy, the world needs non-traditional means — a new mindset, new partnerships and reformed methodologies.

Both Muslims and the rest of the international community are fighting for the future, he said, as “our adversary has put the fight in every place where humans live and interact: airports, cafés, city streets”.

His Majesty urged security cooperation and the adoption of a holistic approach.

“This means reforming the way we communicate, share information, and use our technologies…Ours is a global fight. The focus must not stop with the Middle East, but reach far beyond – in West and East Africa, in South East Asia and the Balkans.”

The King reiterated Jordan’s stands on the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, calling for an inclusive approach that engages all segments in addressing the reconciliation and rebuilding processes.

On the Mideast conflict, he said: “No injustice has spread more bitter fruit than the denial of a Palestinian state. I say: Peace is a conscious decision. Israel has to embrace peace or eventually be engulfed in a sea of hatred in a region of turmoil,” stressing that safeguarding Jerusalem is a key concern… and “a priority for me personally, and for all Muslims. We utterly reject attacks on Muslim and Christian holy sites...  and any attempts to alter the historic Muslim, Christian and Arab identity of the holy city. “As the custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, I will continue my efforts to protect these places, and stand up against all violations of their sanctity, including attempts for temporal and spatial division of Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif.”