Jordan’s king is making a heartfelt defense of the kinder side of Islam in the face of “the outlaws of Islam that operate globally today,” the Associated Press reported.
King Abdullah II quoted the Quran: “And my mercy embraces all things.”
In his address to a U.N. gathering of world leaders, he asks, “When and how did fear and intimidation creep so insidiously into our conversation when there is so much more to be said about the love of God?”
The king says he has called the rise of extremist groups like the Islamic State in his region, and the crisis they have caused, “a third world war, and I believe we must respond with equal intensity.”
Jordan borders both Syria and Iraq, and Syrian refugees now make up 20 percent of Jordan’s population.