Pope, Saudi King hold historic meeting
Pope Benedict and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah held a historic meeting on Tuesday and discussed the situation of minority Christians in the Islamic country where the Vatican wants them to have more freedom. Pope Benedict greeted the king by extending both hands for a double handshake and then led the king into his library. The pope and the king spent about 30 minutes behind closed doors, speaking with the help of two translators. At the first meeting between a Pope and a Saudi monarch, the two also discussed the need for greater collaboration between Christians, Muslims and Jews and prospects for a Middle East peace. Interreligious dialogue, peace in the Middle East and the life of Christians living in Saudi Arabia were on the agenda when Pope Benedict XVI met King Abdullah Aziz of Saudi Arabia.The Vatican wants greater rights for the 1 million Catholics who live in Saudi Arabia, most of them migrant workers who are not allowed to practice their religion in public. They are only allowed to worship in private places, usually homes, and cannot wear signs of their faith in public. Furthermore, while Saudi Arabia has reportedly shown some progress in religious tolerance, the Sunni Muslim-dominated country is accused of promoting religious intolerance worldwide through its religious textbooks. “He (King Abdullah)’s moving to create a more tolerant society that allows people of minority faiths to practice more freely,” said Hanford during the release of the U.S. Department of State’s 2007 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.
Abdullah's visit comes as relations between the Vatican and the Muslim world have eased since the crisis provoked in September 2006 when Benedict appeared to link Islam with violence in a speech at Regensburg University, Germany. I hope , this meeting will be a landmark in the history. It will help to create an atmosphere of religious tolerance. It also may be an eye opener to understand religious fanaticism of Muslims. Religious fanaticism may not bring peace to the world. But religious tolerance may bring peace and prosperity to the world.
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