Gulf | Saudi Arabia
Saudi King Abdullah prepares ground for interfaith meeting
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz has won backing from Muslim clerics from around the world for an interfaith dialogue with Christians and Jews, state media reported on Saturday.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:05 June 8, 2008
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz has won backing from Muslim clerics from around the world for an interfaith dialogue with Christians and Jews, state media reported on Saturday.
Some 500 religious scholars and academics gathered for a three-day conference in Makkah, which ended on Friday, as the first step of a plan announced by the Saudi king this year to create a dialogue with other faiths.
The king's call, which followed a meeting with Pope Benedict at the Vatican last year, sparked much interest from Jewish and Christian groups around the world.
The Makkah meeting recommended "conferences, forums and discussion groups between the followers of the prophetic messages, and relevant civilisations, cultures and philosophies to which academics, media and religious leaders will be invited", according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
It said the participants, who included Egypt's Grand Shaikh of Al Azhar Mohammad Saeed Tantawi and former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, established that a dialogue with other faiths was legitimate in Islam.
Building ties
SPA gave no more details, but a gathering of Jewish and Christian clerics in Saudi Arabia would be ground-breaking.
Riyadh has been making efforts to build better ties with Washington and improve its international image after 9/11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudi. Saudi militants also launched a violent campaign against to overthrow the monarchy in 2003, denouncing the rulers as un-Islamic.
Although the official religious establishment is on board for the king's interfaith effort, many Wahhabi clerics remain opposed even to talking to Shiites.
A group of independent clerics issued a statement last week saying Shiites, including Hezbollah, were posturing against Israel to hide an anti-Sunni agenda.
Some Shiites said that, despite the presence of Iran's Rafsanjani, few of their number were invited to the Makkah meeting. None came from Europe or North America and one from Saudi Arabia's own Shiite minority which complains that it is given second class status.
The final statement said the conference called for "communication between Islamic sects in an effort to unite the Islamic nation and lighten the effects of fanaticism".
On Friday, leading Islamic scholars had proposed creating a centre that would promote relations among religions, SPA reported.
The scholars urged the creation of King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz International Centre for Connection between Civilisations.
They also called for the creation of an international prize named after the king.
The scholars called on the king to bring together Christian, Jewish and Muslim specialists and from other beliefs "to agree on a format for a fruitful world dialogue that would contribute to solving problems faced today by mankind".
Do you think this initiative will be successful? Why? What more, according to you, can be done to encourage dialogue? Tell us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com or fill in the form bellow to send your comments.
Your comments
This is an excellent step towards establishing a peaceful world, DR. Zakir Naik from India shouldn't be ignored in this meeting, since he is the greatest scholar in interfaith thoughts and study.
S.Shahin
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 08, 2008, 11:27
I really appreciate the move made by king Abdullah.I know this can be a good start of having good relationship to every tribe, culture, beiefs and even to every individual. A true man thinks of what is right for all humanity. Greater reward awaits in heaven.
Von
Deira,UAE
Posted: June 08, 2008, 10:55
Share this article
Related Articles
Popular in News
News Editor's choice
-
Protest by rights group fails to stop gory Nepal festival
200,000 animals set to be sacrificed
-
Top Korean model found dead in Paris
Kim was an accomplished painter and video filmmaker who had a solo show of her artwork in Seoul
-
Slain journalist Pearl's widow busy with new film
Widow busy producing documentary on lives of inspirational women
