(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) Lower House Speaker Atef Tarwneh said Saturday that the Middle East region is facing the "serious challenge" of terrorism and expansion of terror cells that perpetrate crimes in the name of Islam.
He told the Middle East Committee of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), which began a meeting in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, today, "We as Muslims and as Islamic and Arab states, reject, or rather criminalize and fight, such practices and seek to dry up their resources to safeguard our national and regional security." "Our goal is not just to protect (our) security and shore up our safety and stability; rather the war on terrorism is our war and we will draw the lines between what is right and what is wrong in that war which had become a huge burden on our countries and societies," he told the gathering.
He said Islam is a religion that embraces the values of tolerance and moderation based on the message of acceptance and recognition of the others, not killing, expelling or victimizing them.
Tarawneh said His Majesty King Abdullah had sought to mobilize Muslim scholars and intellectuals from various schools of Islamic thought as part of Jordan's efforts to build a solid intellectual front that abhors terrorism and exposes extremists.
"We in Jordan have made a unique effort in this regard via the accord on the Amman Message which takes a decisive stance to reject terrorism and extremism and underscore the tenets of tolerance and moderation, principles around which we had built an accord of intellectuals representing the Mazaheb (Islamic schools of thought)," he said.
The House speaker said Jordan had offered an "advanced model" through its military participation in the anti-terrorism international coalition and regional coordination in the war on terrorism, noting that the Kingdom had lost hero pilot, Muath Kasasbeh.
He said Jordan faces security challenges along its long borders with Syria and Iraq, and also pointed out that the Kingdom has been facing the challenge of hosting about one million Syrian refugees since 2005, including residents and refugees.
Tarawneh also told the IPU committee that the Palestinian issue is at the core of all crises in the Middle East, but added that the international community had displayed a lack of will and the seriousness to find a political solution between the Palestinians and Israel based on the two-state solution.
"The absence of a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue on the basis of international legitimacy resolutions and the declaration of a fully sovereign Palestinian state living in dignity on its (national) soil means losing the key to a solution to the Middle East crises," he said.
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