Saudi King 'Abdullah Opens Inter-Faith Conference In Madrid.

King 'Abdullah ibn 'Abdul-'Aziz of Saudi Arabia on July 16 opened a meeting of Muslims, Christians, Jews and other believers in Madrid, which he has sponsored, with a call to shun the extremist violence which has tarnished the reputation of religious faith. The three-day conference show-cased a more tolerant side of Saudi Arabia's strict Sunni Islam based on Wahhabism, a Salafi movement, especially since 15 Saudis were among the 19 al-Qaeda Arabs who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (9/11), against the US.

It was the first time that Saudi Arabia, where non-Muslims may not practice their faith openly, invited Jews to such a meeting. The king also invited Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. But no Jewish rabbis from Israel were invited, because that would have been mid-interpreted in the Arab world and exploited by Saudi Arabia's Arab and other Muslim opponents, such as the 'Alawite/Ba'thist regime of Assad in Syria and Iran's Shi'ite theocracy - the latter now leading an axis of anti-Israel/anti-US forces in the Greater Middle East (GME).

Assad is particularly angry with King 'Abdullah's regime because it is among the staunch backers of a Lebanese-UN tribunal to try the killers of Hariri and other Lebanese VIPs, with the Syrian regime implicated by Beirut politicians and Western leaders. King 'Abdullah is close to Rif'at al-Assad, the uncle of Bashar who is among those suspected by Damascus to be plotting a coup d'etat in Syria.

Flanked by King Juan Carlos of Spain at a royal palace in the hills west of Madrid, King 'Abdullah said: "Differences do not lead to conflict and confrontation; we have to state that tragedies which have occurred in history were not caused by religion but by extremism adopted by some of the followers of each one of the religions" - in al-Qaeda's case, Neo-Salafi terrorism.

Jewish and Christian leaders at the Madrid conference said King 'Abdullah had taken a momentous step to fight the forces of religious fanaticism. His choice of Madrid for the inter-faith conference was to underline the long tradition of religious tolerance in Spain. And 'Abdullah is particularly appreciative of King Juan Carlos' deep respect for the Saudi royal family and its religious tolerance.

King 'Abdullah began the dialogue plan after meeting Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in November 2007. At that meeting, he and the pope agreed that King 'Abdullah launch an inter-faith dialogue, with the Vatican pledging to put its weight behind such an initiative. Spain is especially important to the Vatican as it is predominantly Catholic. King 'Abdullah's goal is to bring about a lasting inter-faith concordat.

There was caution at how effective the event might be in achieving that goal, given that no Israeli rabbis or intellectuals were on the list of 288 religious, political and cultural figures attending the Madrid conference, including former UK Tony Blair and black US Reverend Jesse Jackson. But a highly-placed Saudi source in Madrid told APS it was still too early for Saudi Arabia to invite Israeli rabbis or intellectuals to such events, which he said were to be part of an on-going process.

Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee said: "If it moves ahead and there are [to be] meetings including official Israeli representatives in Saudi Arabia and it expands this, it will be the wonderful beginning of a very historic process. If it doesn't do that, then it's another photo opportunity".

King 'Abdullah said previous attempts at inter-faith dialogue had failed because they focused on religious differences. He added: "If we want to have success in this historical meeting, we have to emphasise what we have in common, the belief and deep faith in God".

The Saudi royal family rules the Arabian kingdom in alliance with Wahhabi clerics, based on a concordat sealed more than 250 years ago between Prince Muhammad al-Saud and Shaikh Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab, a religious reformer whose puritanical concept of Salafism became known as Wahhabism. Now Wahhabism is the official sect in Saudi Arabia, with the ruling branch of the Saudi royal family basing its regime on tribal alliances made early in the 20th century by 'Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud.

Salafi extremists in Saudi Arabia are known as Neo-Wahhabis, or Neo-Salafis, as they follow an ideology developed in the 1940s by extremist members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherbood (MB) like Sayyed Qutb. The Saudi-born Salafi activist 'Usama bin Laden - who lost his Saudi nationality in 1994 for having called for the ouster of the Saudi royal family from power and the downfall of the other regimes in the Muslim world in favour of a pan-Sunni caliphate - adopted the Neo-Salafi ideology in 1998 when he merged his al-Qaeda with Islamic Jihad of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zawahiri, an Egyptian medical doctor, is a Neo-Salafi ideologue. The merger turned al-Qaeda into a trans-national network, which became world famous after 9/11.

The Saudi government is engaged in an all-out war against al-Qaeda's Saudi branch, which still has a wide following among the young people in the kingdom, most of whom are un-employed. Because of this war between Riyadh and al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi religious establishment has been split in recent years, with radical scholars occasionally coming up with open condemnation of King 'Abdullah's calls for religious tolerance, inter-faith dialogue, socio-economic reforms and the war against Neo-Salafi "terrorism".