King Abdullah and the skeptics
source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/12/opinion/edblair.php
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/12/opinion/edblair.php
The decision by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to hold an interfaith conference under the auspices of the United Nations is bold, courageous and potentially far-reaching.To many people, especially in the West, his initiative may seem unremarkable. In fact, it is a major step forward in the long march to a relationship between Islam and other faiths that is not one of confrontation or distrust but of peaceful co-existence.
King Abdullah is not only the ruler of Saudi Arabia. He is the keeper of the two Holy Mosques, the religious sites at Mecca and Medina which, together with Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, constitute three of the leading holy places of Islam. He is also the leader of a nation that critics say has been slow to modernize, with fraught consequences for the rest of the world. But King Abdullah's decision to offer the hand of friendship and mutual respect to other religions by initiating the conference, which began Wednesday, has big implications - as the criticism of his initiative from some corners of the Islamic world indicates.
