Saudi Arabia has defended its plan to fund a religious dialogue centre in Vienna saying Judaism and other faiths would be represented and that it would be free from political interference.
Critics of the centre say Saudi Arabia’s austere version of Sunni Islam means it is an unsuitable country to promote religious debate. Saudi Arabia does not allow other faiths to have places of worship in the kingdom and its Muslims are forbidden from converting to other religions on pain of death.
Austria and Spain will also fund the Vienna-based “King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue”, but Saudi Arabia said it was willing to stump up the lion’s share of cash if needed. “(Our) paying for the operation is to create a fund that makes the centre independent from any sort of political interference,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference in the Austrian capital on Thursday.
[A COMMENT] Saudi just arrested a man for having a tattoo of Jesus on his arm. You cannot bring a Bible into Saudi. You cannot practice any religion othe than Islam in Saudi Arabia. They are happy to spread their religion in other countries, yet they have no religious tolerance in their own country. [Reuters Blogs - FaithWorld] Read more
