cross cultural dialogue

President Levin, Dean Lorimer, faculty, students… thank you so much for making me feel so welcome here at Yale. I’ve wanted to come here for many years, and am so grateful to everyone for the hospitality and kindness you’ve shown to me and my staff.

I’ve really been looking forward to seeing the Yale landmarks that I’ve been hearing about for so long – the Beinecke Library… Harkness Tower… Old Campus… Peter Salovey’s moustache.

Thank you, Nermin, for those kind words – and, more importantly, for all you do as president of the Mosaic Foundation. Over the past eight years, the Mosaic Foundation has played an inspiring role – not only in lifting the lives of women and children around the world… but in showing how much Arab women can do, individually and collectively. Tonight’s magnificent gala is just the latest proof of your leadership.

I would also like to thank Laura Bush for honoring us with her support… and for her lifetime of service on behalf of children, literacy and education.

Let me start with the traditional greeting of Islam: peace be upon you.

I welcome the opportunity to engage in this conversation, and I am glad to think global readers are interested in Islam, a religion shared and cherished by millions of men and women around the world. I hope that this exercise challenges perceptions that Muslims are somehow different…strange…a breed apart. The other.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - New Delhi) Addressing an audience of leaders, opinion shapers and policy makers from all around India, on Friday, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah spoke of Jordan and India’s shared spirit of optimism and openness, charging one of the world’s emerging economic powers with the responsibility towards a moral and just leadership in the 21st century.

Colleen McEdwards: Well, Jordan's Queen Rania is without question a different sort of sovereign, she's young, well educated, she chairs non-governmental organizations, and she travels the world, talking about education and the rights of women and children.

I had a chance to talk to her while she was in Los Angeles. We discussed her work, the war in Iraq, and her recent visit to an L.A. high school.

Françoise Crouïgneau: Your Majesty, we know of your commitment to cross cultural dialogue. What is your main message : to fight against misunderstanding, stereotypes and intolerance? To fight against poverty and violence and, at the end of the day, for peace?

Queen Rania: I believe many of these issues are inter-related…but, yes, I’m deeply committed to building greater understanding between people of all cultures, religions and backgrounds… showing people that we have so much in common… regardless of race, religion, color or creed, people share the same concerns and values.

(Office of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah-Press Department) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, on Saturday, was granted the Honorary Citizenship of Milan Award, in recognition for her work and social contributions on the international front.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Jeddah) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah said despite human and natural resources, the region’s progress was too often constrained in outmoded barriers, and called on society to take a participatory approach to ensure a better life for all.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - New York) During day two of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah stressed that the only way to create a stable and secure world is to address global injustices, specifically in the Arab world.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Deauville) At the opening ceremony of the second annual meeting of the Women's Forum in Deauville, France on Thursday, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah urged attendants from the corporate world, public sector, and civil society to start a trend of multicultural responsibility and replace a growing culture of fear and suspicion around the world with a revolution of acceptance and hope.