JEDDAH, 11 April 2005 — Crown Prince Abdullah yesterday called for measures to combat deviant thoughts by carrying out cultural and educational programs, explaining the true teachings of Islam and driving home the merits of moderation and tolerance.
“This country, which is honored to serve the two holy mosques, cannot tolerate any aberration of the fundamentals of Islam,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.
Prince Abdullah made this comment while addressing the board meeting of King Abdul Aziz Public Library in Riyadh. He also emphasized the library’s role in spreading knowledge and obliterating ignorance.
Faisal Muammar, an adviser at the crown prince’s court and supervisor of the library, said more than 220,000 male and female researchers had benefited from the library last year. He estimated the total number of visitors to the library at two million. There are more than 1.2 million titles in the library, which has published 13 books.
He said the board meeting discussed the progress of the library’s unified Arab directory project, which aims at unifying data and facilitating exchange of information between libraries.
Referring to the Saudi Arabian Encyclopedia project, he said it would serve as an authentic reference on the Kingdom. It will contain information on every region of the Kingdom, its antiquities, historical sites, natural and agricultural resources, ancient history, culture and traditions as well as achievements in health, education, industry and communication.
The first volume covering Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh and the Eastern Province has been completed and will be published this year, Muammar said, adding that the encyclopedia would be translated into English and other foreign languages.
The project on rare books, coins, documents, pictures and maps also came up at the board meeting and Muammar said the library has already collected 81,000 rare documents and manuscripts.
The board commended the library’s plan to set up a databank of rare documents and Saudi and Islamic history and convert its manuscripts to electronic pages, giving researchers all over the world access to them through its website.
