Jordan’s King Abdullah issued a chilling warning on Tuesday of a “third world war against humanity.” The king also described ISIS as “savage outlaws of religion.”
During an official visit to Kosovo, King Abdullah said that both Europe and Islam were under attack from the “scourge” of terrorists who can strike anywhere and at any time.
At a press conference, Abdullah remarked:
“We are facing a third world war against humanity and this is what brings us all together. This is a war, as I’ve said repeatedly, within Islam.”
The king also said that radical groups such as ISIS:
“Expose themselves daily as savage outlaws of religion, devoid of humanity, respecting no laws and no boundaries.
“So therefore we must act fast and holistically to tackle and respond to the interconnected threats whether it is in this region, Africa, Asia, or in Europe.”
Jordan, which is majority Muslim, is part of the allied coalition that has been battling against ISIS for over a year now.
On Sunday, King Abdullah also commented on the rise of radical Islam and said that extremism was:
“Our fight as Muslims against those who aim to turn our societies and future generations towards fanaticism and extremism.”
To date, Jordan has accepted 1.4 million refugees fleeing from the Syrian civil war.
Approximately 250,000 people have died since the war in Syria began four years ago.
Clearly, the real solution to the Syrian issue, to the flood of refugees, to defeating ISIS, lies in ending the civil war. Assad must be compelled to resign and a caretaker government can then be set up by regional Arab nations–Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia–until new elections can be held. If that does not happen, the war will drag on and potentially destabilize the entire region.
There are solutions to the problem, but they require courage, negotiation, and diplomacy. As we have seen in previous Middle East conflicts, military force alone will only give rise to more hatred, extremism, and violence.
