Saudi Arabia Sponsors UN Inter-faith Conference

INTERFAITH – CONFERENCE – UN 

Washington, 12 November (IranVNC)—World leaders today gathered at the United Nations in New York City to launch a two-day interfaith conference sponsored by Saudi Arabia. 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the Saudi initiative as “truly inspiring”, and said that countries should work to ensure that “our rich cultural diversity makes us more secure – not less.”

US President George W. Bush is also listed to address the conference. Spokesperson Dana Perino said that Bush “believes that the king of Saudi Arabia has recognized that they have a long way to go and that he is trying to take some steps to get there.”

Rights groups have criticized the conference sponsored by Saudi Arabia, an officially Sunni-Muslim state that prohibits public worship by those who do not practice the state’s Wahhabi Islam. 

“Dialogue is no substitute for compliance with universal human rights standards,” wrote the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in an op-ed published in the Christian Science Monitor today.

In his address to the145-member assembly, Israel’s President Shimon Peres praised a Saudi peace plan for the Middle East as a “serious opening for real progress,” the Jewish Telegraph Agency reports.

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