Prince Hassan of Jordan: 'Christianity an essential fabric to the Middle East,' condemns ISIS and urges interfaith efforts

Prince Hassan of Jordan strongly urged for interfaith relations as he condemned the Islamic State and embraced Christianity as an essential part of the Middle East.

The 69-year-old brother of King Hussein of Jordan together with the 53-year-old Dr. Ed Kessler, founding director of the Woolf Institute, represented the Muslims and Jews, respectively, in a joint statement for The Telegraph on Tuesday where they took a stance against the persecution of Christians, especially by the jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh).

The duo spurned the contention made by Daesh on the article "Break the Cross" on Dabiq, the group's online magazine used mainly for propaganda and recruitment, that refused to recognize and accept Christians as one of their own.

"Christianity has been part of the essential fabric of the Middle East for two thousand years. Far from being a Western import as some, incredibly, now seem to suggest, it was born here and exported as a gift to the rest of the world," wrote Hassan and Kessler.

They also denounced the atrocities committed by Daesh, not just against Christians but even to fellow Muslims. They criticized the terrorist group's "apocalyptic vision" as chiefly the makings of the "warped minds of today's jihadists" and accused them of wanting to take the world into another Dark Age similar to that of the Middle Ages.

"It is time to call a halt to the hate and atrocities that are causing convulsions throughout our immediate region and beyond," urged the two. "Peace and humanity itself hang upon the success of this interfaith exercise. It is that important," they added.

They pointed out that the Abrahamic scriptures of the world's three largest religions – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – contained texts that have been used to justify division and crimes in the name of God.

Yet Islam also advocates the right to freedom and the right to human dignity just as Judaism calls for the preservation of human life above everything else. The duo suggested that contrasting texts from the same Scripture should be studied together and as they noted the importance of Scriptural interpretation.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi of Qom, Iran's top Muslim cleric also condemned the Takfiri sects or Muslims who accuse other Muslims as apostates and lauded Pope Francis for refusing to identify Islam as a violent religion.