* New centre aims to help boost interfaith projects
* Centre is latest step in cautious Saudi reform drive
* Draws flak due to Saudis’ own ban on non-Muslim religion
* Austria defends centre against critics of Saudi policies
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
VIENNA, Nov 26 (Reuters)- A Saudi-backed centre to promote
interfaith dialogue worldwide began work in Vienna on Monday by
bringing hundreds of religious activists together to discuss how
to promote understanding among different beliefs.
Named after Saudi King Abdullah, the centre is a welcome
boost for bridge-building between faiths in an era of financial
austerity but has drawn criticism because Saudi Arabia enforces
a strict Islam and bans non-Muslim religious practice.
The Centre, launched by Saudi Arabia as an international
organisation with multifaith oversight, aims to help religions
contribute to solving problems such as conflicts, prejudice and
health crises rather than be misused to worsen them.
“The prime purpose is to empower the active work of those in
the field, whether in the field of dialogue, of social activism
or of conflict resolution,” said Jerusalem-based Rabbi David
Rosen, representing Judaism on the nine-seat board of directors.
“We want to empower you,” he told an opening session where
dialogue projects from Europe, the Middle East and Africa
reported on how they worked to foster inter-faith understanding.
The centre plans to work first on improving how religions
are presented in media and schoolbooks, involving faith leaders
in children’s health campaigns in poor countries and hosting
religious leaders for fellowships at its Vienna headquarters.
CAUTIOUS ROAD TO REFORM
The King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for
Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) is the
latest step in the monarch’s cautious reform process at home and
in improving relations with other faiths around the world.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said he hoped it would
“bring peace and understanding between the various religions.
Religion has been the basis for many conflicts.”
Spurred into action by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the
United States – in which most of the militants involved were
Saudi nationals – and radical Islamist bombings in Saudi Arabia
two years later, the king has brought together Sunni and Shi’ite
Muslims to discuss how to counter extremism in Islam.
He hosted an interfaith conference in 2008 but had to hold
it in Madrid because the kingdom is so conservative. However,
Saudi officials at the Vienna conference stressed the dialogue
message was being spread back home as well.
“The aim is to promote acceptance of other cultures,
moderation and tolerance,” said Fahad Sultan AlSultan, deputy
head of a Saudi national dialogue effort launched in 2003.
“There are problems but we have achieved some success.”
KAICIID is managed by a board with 3 Muslims, 3 Christians,
a Jew, a Buddhist and a Hindu. About 450 activists attended its
first conference and over 800 were expected on Monday evening
for its formal inauguration in the Hofburg imperial palace.
AUSTRIAN CRITICS
Board member Reverend Toby Howarth said its international
status sponsored by Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain gave the
centre several advantages over non-governmental organisations or
church groups working on similar issues.
It would have more “pulling power” dealing with government
ministers on issues such as improving the way religions are
presented in a country’s schoolbooks, said Howarth, who is
interfaith adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The fact that King Abdullah is the custodian of Islam’s two
holiest mosques, in Mecca and Medina, would “have weight in some
Muslim countries”, he added.
The Vatican said last Friday the centre would also serve as
a forum to speak up for the religious rights of Christians in
Muslim-majority countries. Many foreign workers in Saudi Arabia
are Christians but no churches can be built there.
Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger defended the
establishment of KAICIID in Vienna, saying “it is my deep
conviction that there is no alternative to this dialogue”.
But the centre’s Austrian critics kept up a drumbeat of
criticism. A group called Liberal Muslims held a small protest
outside the Hofburg against Saudi human rights violations.
The Green Party said Austria was naive to think Saudi
Arabia, which has financed many mosques espousing the austere
Wahhabi form of Islam in Europe, had no ulterior motives in
paying for the centre’s headquarters and first 3 years’ budget.
KAICIID officials say the centre is independent and would
not be promoting any one religion.
(Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan Editing by Mark
Heinrich)
