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Saudi Arabia Initiates
Inter-Faith Dialog http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=111881&d=16&m=7&y=2008 Bismillah,
it is a good beginning. One of
the most conservative societies, Saudi Arabia is opening up to people of other
faiths. The process began in 2005 when Saudi Emissaries started branching
out all over the world to explore interfaith. In Dallas per the request of a
Saudi minister, I had arranged for a 20 member meeting from Jewish, Islamic and
Christian groups as an initial step towards including all faiths in the near
future. Since then the Saudi Kingdom has taken series of steps in
this direction culminating in interfaith dialogue series. First it was the same
three groups; Judaism, Christianity and Islam and now, I am pleased it has
included Hinduism and Buddhism. I am
further pleased to read the following statements "Abdullah Al-Turki,
secretary-general of the MWL, said, "The aim of the conference is for us
to get to know each other and look for ways to cooperate." And their focus
is on "humanitarian issues and challenges facing the world". He
further adds "that the conference would look at social and ethnic
conflicts, environmental issues, the breakdown of the family and militant
violence around the world." He added the conferences would initially not
focus on theological issues. Years
ago, I had a daily radio show called "Wisdom of Religion, all the
beautiful religions" which ran for full two years. Our focus was
on the message of each one of the religions and how the common man on the
street could relate with the essence of each faith. God willing,
the World Muslim Congress, the Memnosyne Foundation and the Foundation for
pluralism from Dallas will work towards creating a better world of
co-existence. MADRID:
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will open here today an
international interfaith conference that aims to allow representatives of the
world's great religions to get to know each other. The
Muslim World League (MWL) has organized the World Conference on Dialogue on the
directives of King Abdullah. The king "has been calling for this type of
dialogue between religions for the past three years," Saleh Al-Namlah,
undersecretary at the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information, told
reporters. Around
200 people are expected to attend the event. They include representatives of
the world's major religions: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and
Hinduism. Secretary-General of the World Jewish Congress Michael Schneider and
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is in charge of dialogue between the Vatican
and Muslims, are prominent among them. The
interfaith idea, which comes after the Saudi king held talks with Pope Benedict
XVI at the Vatican in November last year, has sparked interest from Jewish and
Christian groups around the world. Abdullah
Al-Turki, secretary-general of the MWL, said, "The aim of the conference
is for us to get to know each other and look for ways to cooperate." He
added that Saudi Arabia "affirms to the whole world its openness and
cooperation with the world community." The
MWL chief said the conference would avoid theological issues and instead focus
on "humanitarian issues" and challenges facing the world. "Islam
requires Muslims to inform people about Islam as the final divine message that
came after the previous prophets, and that they must also challenge the link
between Islam and extremist violence," he said. He
added that the conference would look at social and ethnic conflicts,
environmental issues, the breakdown of the family and militant violence around
the world. Al-Turki
said many international organizations concerned with dialogue, human rights and
global cooperation have welcomed the interfaith conference. He
hoped the conference would change the minds of the protagonists of a clash of
civilizations. "Some researchers in the West still deal with Islamic
civilization thinking that it would definitely clash with the Western
civilization," he pointed out. The
MWL secretary-general said the dialogue would help remove misunderstandings
about Islam. "The conference will help save humanity from wars, injustice
and corruption," he added. He
reiterated Islam's rejection of terrorism. "Terrorism is an international
phenomenon and cannot be linked to a particular religion, country, people or
culture." Al-Turki
spoke about MWL's long-standing tradition of holding dialogues with leaders of
other faiths in the past 50 years. He urged the media to work for promoting a
culture of dialogue among followers of different religions and cultures. After
the inaugural session attended by King Abdullah and King Juan Carlos of Spain,
four sessions will be held before a final communiqué is read out on Friday. Spain
was chosen as the site for the conference as it is "a natural place for
this type of dialogue" since for centuries it has been home to members of
three of the world's great religions, said Saudi Ambassador Prince Saud ibn
Naif. Furthermore,
the UN Alliance of Civilizations, aimed at promoting dialogue between different
cultures, was the idea of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. --------------------------------------------------------------- Jazak
Allah Khair Mike
Ghouse www.Foundationforpluralism.com Interfaith forum begins today
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