King backs dialogue center

CASABLANCA: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah received members of the board of directors of King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue here yesterday.
“King Abdullah wished all success for the board’s endeavors to realize the center’s objectives,” the Saudi Press Agency reported. The king thanked the board members for their endeavors to promote interfaith dialogue for strengthening world peace.
The meeting was attended by a number of senior princes and ministers including Prince Muqrin, adviser and special envoy; Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, minister of education; Ibrahim Al-Assaf, finance minister; and Faisal Muammar, secretary-general of the center.
The board members commended King Abdullah’s interfaith initiative and his contributions toward the establishment of the Vienna-based center, which is funded by Saudi Arabia. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal opened the center last October. Addressing the king, Muammar said the board’s fourth meeting had discussed matters related to realizing the center’s objectives. He commended the cooperation and understanding among the board members who represent various religious faiths and cultures.
Muammar said the center would work for spreading a culture of dialogue, tackling problems with wisdom and promoting the common values of humanity.
Prince Saud, who took part in the center’s inauguration, said it would promote tolerance among the followers of religious faiths and contribute to world peace and stability.
“Saudi Arabia is willing to financially participate in this project, and to place all its moral and political resources behind the center, without infringing ... on its autonomy or independence from any political interference,” he said.
The Vienna dialogue center is conceived as an international organization, open to all UN members and all religions. The center will be based in the Sturany Palace, which is accessible easily from different parts of Vienna.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the idea of the dialogue center was first mooted back in 2005 following an extraordinary Islamic summit in Makkah. The initiative received further encouragement following a meeting between King Abdullah and Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and after an interfaith global meeting that took place in Madrid on July 16, 2008.
The center would oversee a number of interfaith and cultural dialogue programs besides interreligious discussions to promote world peace and peaceful coexistence among followers of different faiths, a ministry statement said. The center will cooperate with other dialogue centers and institutions that work to foster greater understanding between followers of various religions and cultures, it added.