The project is a result of the International Conference on Combating Terrorism held in Riyadh in 2005 and attended by around 60 countries and international bodies, which recommended expanding global efforts and cooperation to counter terrorism.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s suggestion to establish a center under the auspices of the UN received significant support from the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as other important international bodies. It was also mentioned in the UN’s global strategy on countering terrorism.
The center is the first global body specializing in counter-terrorism, one of the greatest challenges facing the international community today. For its part, Saudi Arabia is determined to support efforts to bring an end to the abomination of terrorism.
Regardless of its ideology and its origins, acts of terror totally contradict the values of our society. We would like to see all states agreeing on a definition of terrorism that is not selective or based on double standards, but helps efforts to uproot terrorist networks and ensure international security and stability.
The massacre in Norway clearly showed that no state in the world is completely safe from terror, and that terrorism has no religion and no ethnicity. Those acts do not represent any religious values, or the society that the terrorist came from.
The small number of Muslims who carry out acts of terror and try to create conflict between Islam and the rest of the world do not represent Islam. Rather, Islam is represented by nearly a billion and a half Muslims around the world and a great civilization 14 centuries old. It rejects terrorism and bigotry, and insists on peace and coexistence with other civilizations and faiths — values King Abdullah has demonstrated with his initiative for religious dialogue.
Saudi Arabia, like many states, has suffered terrorist attacks and has reacted to them with determination. Society has supported the government in this, unifying with the leadership to tackle this ill. The government has acted decisively to address the problem, through security measures, by addressing the ideology that leads to it, and by cutting off its sources of funding. The achievements of the Kingdom and other states carrying similar efforts need to be replicated on the regional and international levels to break up terror networks and tackle those who fund, incite, or take part in terrorist actions.
Our sincere hope is that in cooperation with relevant UN committees, this center will strengthen the UN’s important role in fighting terrorism everywhere.
