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Interfaith dialog sweeping the globe?

July 17th, 2008

Well, maybe not quite.

But you might need to rub your eyes just a bit when you read that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - which has as its official state religion the anti-western Wahhabi form of Islam - is currently holding an interfaith conference in Madrid.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the conference:

There have been few periods in history when the need for dialogue among world religions has been greater. At a time of increasing divisions along cultural and confessional lines, faith communities have a crucial role to play in fostering mutual understanding and in promoting consensus on common values and aspirations.

Apparently the Saudis aren’t exactly experts in such things, so there is understandably some skepticism:

“If this is a public relations stunt,” said [Rabbi Marc] Schneier [of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the World Jewish Congress], “we’re back in the same place, nothing gained and nothing lost. But if there’s a way to help Muslims strengthen the voices of moderation, we need to be joining this fight.”

Clearly worth watching.

Also of interest, watch for this:

Schneier is also at the conference to announce new Jewish-Muslim initiatives to take place later in the year, including a series of television commercials in time for Ramadan and Rosh Hashana in which rabbis and imams are shown together calling for tolerance, and an effort in November to pair synagogues and mosques for dialogue at the grassroots level.

Entry Filed under: Religion and politics