MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Leading Islamic scholars proposed on Friday creating a centre that would promote relations among different religions, Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA reported.
Wrapping up a three-day international conference in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the scholars urged the creation of the King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz International Centre for Connection between civilisations" in honour of their Saudi host.
They also called for the creation of an international prize named after the king for "figures and international organisations that contribute to advancing the dialogue in order to reach its objectives," a final statement said.
The scholars called on the king to bring together specialists from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions and other beliefs "to agree on a format for a fruitful world dialogue that would contribute to solving problems faced today by mankind."
In March, Abdullah proposed talks among the three largest monotheistic religions in a first for the kingdom, which is home to two of the three holiest shrines in Islam.
Despite this call, Saudi Arabia remains the only Arab Muslim country to ban all non-Islamic religious practices on its soil, despite having a large population of non-Muslim foreigners working there. These include Buddhists, Christians and Hindus.
"The difference between nations in beliefs and cultures are God's will, so they should use their common values as a base for cooperation that would be for their benefit," the statement said.
But the scholars insisted that dialogue should not mean abandoning their principles and their religion's fundamentals.
"A constructive dialogue and peaceful coexistence and cooperation between the followers of (God's) messages and others does not mean abandoning the axioms, or giving up the religion fundamentals," the statement said without explaining what it meant.
The statement does not address the question of how Jewish scholars and clerics from Israel, a country Saudi Arabia does not recognise, might participate in any meetings the new centre might hold in Saudi Arabia.
The participants also called upon the Mecca-based Muslim League, which hosted the conference, to set up an international Islamic committee to put together a common strategy for the inter-faith dialogue.
King Abdullah warned at the opening of the conference that among the major challenges now facing Muslims is combating a growing extremism among them.
The Saudi monarch, whose ultra-conservative kingdom has endured years of struggle with the homegrown extremists of Al-Qaeda, said that his call for dialogue among religions is "to face up to the challenges of introversion and ignorance ... so that the world understands the principles of the good message of Islam."
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