Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah's call at the Makkah Solidarity Summit early yesterday for the creation of a center to promote harmony between the different sects of Islam has received wide support.
"I suggest .. the establishment of a center for dialogue among Islamic sects to come to common terms in Riyadh," King Abdullah said in his historic address to the heads of Muslim states. "Upon recommendation by the general secretariat and the ministerial council, the center's members (can) be selected from within the Islamic summit conference,” he said.
"It is the need of the hour," said an Afghan delegate accompanying President Hamid Karzai. "It is a historic announcement ... Such an initiative has never been taken in the past ... It is a bold move and could only have come from a leader of the stature of King Abdullah," he said.
According to him, all those countries where the sectarian divide is sharp and acute will benefit from King Abdullah's proposal. "What he has said here in Makkah will have a profound bearing on the political landscape of many countries that are facing the grave threat of sectarianism," he said. Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said, will be among the major beneficiaries of such a rapprochement.
"We, in Afghanistan, have Iran as a direct neighbor and so is the case with Pakistan ... If this divide can be bridged and if there is good will among the various sects, then many a political problem can be sorted out in our countries," he said.
King Abdullah expressed delight and happiness at the presence of Muslim leaders from around the globe. "From the vicinity of the House of God, the cradle of eternal Islamic message, it gives me a great pleasure to welcome you in your second country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, wishing Almighty Allah in these blessed nights to help us to tackle the affairs of our Islamic nation and probe the reasons of its weakness and differences that it is incurring and which marred its consistency and unity,” said King Abdullah.
"The Islamic nation," he said, "is living in a state of sedition and disunity that led to bloodshed of its people in this holy month in many parts of our Islamic world, ignoring God's verse that ‘Persecution is worse than slaughter.’”
King Abdullah underlined the need for solidarity, tolerance and moderation.
"The ideal solution to all that I have mentioned will not take place except through solidarity, tolerance and moderation and also through standing side by side to face whoever tries to harm our religion and unity … Thus, we could preserve the history, dignity and pride of our Islamic nation at a time when only the superpowers are recognized. If we observe justice, we can conquer injustice, if we practice moderation, we conquer extremism and if we reject dispersion, we can keep our unity, strength and determination," said King Abdullah.
A diplomat from Morocco was all praise for the king's initiative.
"The Sunni-Shia animosity is rooted in history. It will not vanish overnight, but we need sustained efforts to focus on the commonalities," he said. "However, it needs to be mentioned here that the ball is now in Iran's court ... The Iranian leadership needs to show courage and reach out to the Sunni world and drop their hegemonistic attitude."
A journalist from Iraq, Diea Alkoaz, agreed with the Moroccon diplomat's assessment. However, he said, he was not sure if Iran would demonstrate similar magnanimity. "The problem with Iran is that it believes and aspires to have political and military supremacy over Arabs and Sunnis ... Till such time as they harbor such grandiose feelings, we will see no change on the ground," he said.
In a gesture that was widely appreciated, King Abdullah seated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at his side. The Qatari emir sat on the other side of the king.
"It was a message to the Iranian nation and, I assume, to the Saudi people, that we are Muslim and we have to work together and forget about our differences," Abdullah Al-Shammari, a Saudi political analyst, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"King Abdullah was showing Shiites: we haven't tried to skip over you and ignore you. And he was showing to Sunnis here that here is Ahmadinejad and he is a Muslim too. He is no different," said Al-Shammari.
