U.N. peace dialogue said success for Saudi leaders
RIYADH (Reuters) - World leaders' talks this week at the United Nations on a Saudi push for world peace and religious dialogue were hailed by some as a triumph for Saudi Arabia, but critics dismissed the meeting as a public relations exercise.
The absolute monarchy has aimed to boost its global image after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in which 15 of the 19 al Qaeda militants who destroyed New York's Twin Towers were Saudis.
The attacks brought an unwelcome focus on Saudi Arabia's austere Wahhabi Islam and left some Western policy-makers asking whether the world would be better off without the undemocratic princes who rule in alliance with clerics.
"Who would have thought that just seven autumns after 9/11 the king of Saudi Arabia would be welcomed to Manhattan and feted as the inspirer of a dialogue for religious tolerance and peace?" said Robert Lacey, author of a history of Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah, promoted by Saudi Arabia as a moderate who can deal with the rest of the world, met Pope Benedict in the Vatican last year, brought Sunni and Shi'ite clerics to Mecca in March and religious leaders to Madrid in June.
Now the king and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are organizing a special session of the U.N. general assembly on Wednesday and Thursday for talks on "interfaith" issues and the "Culture of Peace."
The Saudi clerics have shown scant support for the initiatives and three prominent figures declined to comment on them to Reuters. The Grand Mufti, who represents the state's official views on religious affairs, did not attend the gathering in Spain which was attended by U.S. Jewish rabbis.
Wahhabism generally shuns contact with "infidels," and for many of them that includes Shi'ites. Clerics at Friday prayers regularly call on God to damn Christians and Jews.
Churches and other outward signs of non-Muslim religiosity are banned in Saudi Arabia and those accused of insulting Islam can face beheading, the punishment meted out by Saudi cleric-judges for crimes such as rape, murder and drug-peddling.
U.S. ELECTION
The conference was timed to take place after the U.S. presidential election and offers Saudi leaders a chance to make contacts with the incoming Democratic administration, whose possible policies on Saudi Arabia and the region have caused nervousness in Riyadh.
Ban met the king in Saudi Arabia over the summer.
As soon as the king arrived in the United States Friday, he had a telephone call with president-elect Barack Obama to discuss U.S.-Saudi "distinguished historic relations."
Israeli President Shimon Peres is scheduled to attend the U.N. session. Saudi ties with Israel have been a goal of U.S. foreign policy.
"I am amazed by the audacity of the Saudi government to pretend that it is interested in religious dialogue with anyone. This is a clear exercise in public relations and deception," said Ali al-Ahmed, a dissident activist in Washington. Continued...
