Queen Rania of Jordan gets YouTube award
Honored for her effort in fighting stereotypes
Jordan's Queen Rania will accept an award from Internet video-sharing website YouTube for her efforts to help prevent Muslims and Arabs from being stereotyped, her office said on Thursday.
"YouTube encourages us to be active participants in a global conversation, making our voices heard, giving us the power to broadcast ourselves, increasing knowledge of each other, breaking down the barriers between us clip by clip."
"It is a pleasure to accept the first YouTube Visionary Award in this spirit," the queen was quoted as saying in a statement.
In April, Rania, the wife of King Abdullah II, launched her own Internet channel on YouTube in a bid to encourage young people to help address the issue of stereotyping.
"To date, the channel has generated nearly three million video views and received more than 43,000 messages from users around the world," the queen's office said, adding that’ she will "accept this honor in recognition of her efforts to rid the world of the stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arab and Muslim communities."
Queen Rania sets the standard for breaking down stereotypes and her YouTube videos are nothing short of inspirational," said YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley. "It is both a pleasure and an honor to present her with this much-deserved tribute."
Last year, the queen told an annual economic forum in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah that Muslims should reject extremism if they want to be taken seriously by the West.
"We are right to question Western governments when their actions only make it easier for radicals to recruit new followers. But our moral authority depends on our willingness to reject the voices of extremism and violence in our midst," she said.