Queen Rania Of Jordan: ISIS Is A ‘Bunch Of Crazy People’ And People Should Refuse To Call Them ‘Islamic’

Queen Rania of Jordan is very specific in her thoughts about ISIS: They are a “bunch of crazy people” and “there’s nothing Islamic about them.”

At The WorldPost Future of Work Conference, Queen Rania spoke with Huffington Post Editor-In-Chief Arianna Huffington. The Queen of Jordan was clear on how strongly she feels religion plays a part in the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s functioning.

“I would love to drop the first ‘I’ in ISIS because there’s nothing Islamic about them.”

According to the Huffington Post, Queen Rania’s statement was followed by a blast of applause from the audience. The queen went on to say that ISIS is only about “fanaticism” and not faith, and people everywhere should no longer place any religious validity on the group because it only gives ISIS “undeserved legitimacy.”

“ISIS wants to be called Islamic…because any action against them will be automatically be called a war against Islam, which is exactly what they want it to be,” Queen Rania of Jordan proclaimed. “They want it to be the West coming against Islam because it will help them with their recruiting.”

She believes ISIS can be defeated when Muslims and Arabs fight back with the international community at their backs. Going to the heart of the Islamic State’s operations, online and in social media, will keep the group from reaching out as far as it can to others it needs to recruit. The queen believes content posted by youths from legitimate Muslim and Arab communities will help combat the recruiting methods of ISIS.

“What the extremists want is to divide our world along fault lines of religion and culture, and so a lot of people in the West may have stereotypes against Arabs and Muslims. But really this fight is a fight between the civilized world and a bunch of crazy people who want to take us back to medieval times. Once we see it that way, we realize that this is about all of us coming together to defend our way of life.”

According to News24, the 44-year-old queen was quick to mention that the public displays of violence ISIS uses does not scare Jordanians; it only angers them and makes them want to fight back.

The Queen of Jordan does not believe ISIS can be defeated only on the battlefield and online. Queen Rania believes ISIS must be defeated “with a better idea” that its own ideology, since people join ISIS for a variety of reasons.

[Photo by Jordan Pix/Getty Images News]