Jordanian Queen Rania al-Abdullah referred to Islamic State as a “bunch of crazy people” Thursday in a London talk with the editor-in-chief of The WorldPost, saying that there is “nothing Islamic about them.”The Jordanian queen called on the international community to shift their focus away from the religious claims of the militant organization because doing so gives them false legitimacy. She said Islamic State seeks to be associated with Islam in order to give their acts legitimacy and push forward the organization’s recruiting effort.“They have nothing to do with faith and everything to do with fanaticism,” she told the Post.The 44-year-old wife of King Abdullah suggested that the war against Islamic State should be forged by Muslims and Arabs with the international community in a supporting role, as opposed to the current US-led coalition status-quo characterized by air strikes on Islamic State targets.“We can’t let [Islamic State] hijack our identity and brand us,” she told the Post. “We have to write our own narrative,” she said, calling on members of the Muslim and Arab community to counter Islamic State’s online platform and social media presence with positive narratives of Islam.The queen said extremists seek to “divide the world along fault lines of religion and culture,” causing many in the West to foster stereotypes against members of Arab and Muslim communities.“This is a fight between the civilized world and a bunch of crazy people,” she told Post editor Ariana Huffington, saying Muslims must unite and defend their way of life.Ideology lies at the core of the war against Islamic State, she said in her talk. She called on the war against Islamic State to be undertaken on different levels, citing the need to “kill an ideology,” something that cannot simply be done with a bullet (i.e., through military means) and must be addressed with a “better idea.”
