Her Majesty Queen Noor is a member of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Advisory Council and a recipient of the Foundation’s World Citizenship Award 2000.
NEW YORK – As long as fighting continues in Iraq (news – web sites), cultural divides between the United States and the Muslim world will continue to deepen, Jordan’s Queen Noor says.
“Muslims are seeing a very aggressive, confrontational side of American foreign policy that’s not being balanced, in their minds, by a conviction that it is motivated by American principles, as opposed to economic issues,” Noor said in an interview with The Associated Press.
She said it is important to involve the United Nations (news – web sites) in the reconstruction process in postwar Iraq, where America’s military presence is viewed by many in the region as imperialism.
Noor was promoting her new best-selling memoir, “Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life,” about her life as the American-born wife of King Hussein. The former Lisa Najeeb Halaby changed her name and converted to Islam when she married Hussein in 1978, four years after graduating from Princeton University. Hussein died in 1999.
“Leap of Faith,” an engaging if slick mix of history, international politics and personal life, was to be published last November, but was rescheduled so it would not coincide with a war against Iraq. The date, ironically, was changed to March 18 — one day before the war began.
The book debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times list of best sellers.