First Saudi call for interfaith dialogue

“The idea is to ask representatives of all monotheistic religions to sit together with their brothers in faith and sincerity to all religions as we all believe in the same God,” the king told delegates to a seminar on “Culture and the Respect of Religions”.

His remarks were carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

“I have noticed that the family system has weakened and that atheism has increased. That is an unacceptable behaviour to all religions, to the Quran, the Torah and the Bible,” he added. “We ask God to save humanity. There is a lack of ethics, loyalty, and sincerity for our religions and humanity.”

Abdullah’s call is significant. The Saudi monarch is the custodian of Islam’s two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, a position that lends his words special importance and influence among many Muslims. Saudi Arabia, which follows a severe interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism, bans non-Muslim religious services and symbols of other religions such as crosses and Bibles.

His message for tolerance comes at a time of mounting religious tensions sparked by the Danish cartoons controversy and the recent high-profile conversion of a Muslim commentator to Catholicism.

The monarch did not say whether Muslim clerics from the kingdom would be willing to meet Jewish leaders from Israel. Saudi Arabia and all other Arab nations besides Egypt and Jordan do not have diplomatic ties with Israel and generally shun unofficial contacts. In Israel, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger welcomed Abdullah’s call.

“Our hand is outstretched to any peace initiative and any dialogue that is aimed at bringing an end to terror and violence,” he said in a statement.

Rabbi David Rosen, head of inter-religious relations at the American Jewish Committee, said he was “delighted” by the Saudi announcement. “Religion is all too often the problem, so it has to also be the solution, or at least part of the solution, and I think that the tragedy of the political initiatives to bring peace has been the failure to include the religious dimension,” he said.

Since coming to power in August 2005, Abdullah has taken steps to encourage dialogue among the Saudi Sunni majority and Muslim minorities, including the Shiites. His meeting with Benedict was the first between a Saudi monarch and a pope.

Abdullah said he plans to hold conferences to get the opinion of Muslims from other parts of the world as well as meetings “with our brothers in all religions which I mentioned, the Torah and Bible, so we can agree on something that guarantees the preservation of humanity against those who tamper with ethics, family systems and honesty.”

Abdullah said that if such an agreement is reached, he plans to take his proposal to the United Nations.