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Islam

Seductive Saudis seek to marry religion with diplomacy


By Stan Goodenough
March 27, 2008

Saudi Arabia's King Abd'allah surprised the world this week when he announced his intention to convene a summit of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Abd'allah, who reigns over a kingdom that has traditionally treated Jews and Christians as pariahs - in accordance with the tenets of Islam - and whose state has been accused of practising rigid religious intolerance, told a newspaper he believed it essential for the well-being of the planet that representatives of the "three monotheistic faiths" come together "to defend humanity."

The king said Monday he had decided to convene gatherings after meeting with Pope Benedict XVI a couple of months ago.

"I plan, Allah willing, to hold summits - not just one - so as to hear the opinion of my Muslim brothers all over the world. We will start to meet with our brothers in every faith I have mentioned - the bible and the New Testament," he said.

"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."

[Jews and Christians believe in the God of the Bible who calls Himself YHVH, God of Israel; Muslims believe in Allah - the moon god of ancient Arabia-Ed.]

Catholic and Jewish interfaith promoters leaped to welcome the news, as did the Bush administration.

Special US envoy to the Organisation of Islamic conference Sada Cumber said dialogue "is always encouraging," adding that "we will attend the meeting."

The director of the Catholic New York-based Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, Rev. James Loughran, said he was "elated" to hear of the proposal.

One of Israel's chief rabbis, Yona Metzger, said in response that the hands of the Jewish people "are extended to any peace initiative, or to any dialogue whose goal is to bring an end to terror and violence. I have said many times that the true way to reach the long-awaited peace is through interfaith dialogue."

Also reportedly delighted was the head of inter-religious relations at the American Jewish Committee, Rabbi David Rosen.

"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, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.

But this writer suspects the monarch is working to introduce a religious track into the land-for-peace process that will ally pro-Palestinian Christian denominations and liberal Jewish groups behind the 2002 Saudi-sponsored peace plan upon which the US-pushed Road Map towards a two-state solution is based.

Earlier this year a senior advisor to Abd'allah and former Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Turki al-Faisal, dangled before Israelis the chance of "joining the Arab world" if the Jewish state signed a peace treaty and withdrawing from "all occupied Arab territories."

"Exchange visits by people of both Israel and the rest of the Arab countries would take place," Turki said, adding that "we will start thinking of Israelis as Arab Jews rather than simply as Israelis," al-Faisal said.

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