Saudi monarch decries extremism

MADRID - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah opened an unprecedented meeting of Muslims, Christians, Jews and other believers yesterday with a call to shun the extremism that has tarnished the reputation of religious faith.

The three-day conference in Madrid aims to showcase a more tolerant side of the kingdom's strict Wahhabi Islam under fire since 15 Saudis were among the 19 Arabs who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

It was the first time Saudi Arabia, where non-Muslims cannot practice their faith openly, invited Jews to such a meeting. The king also invited Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs.

"Differences do not lead to conflict and confrontation, we have to state that tragedies that have occurred in history were not caused by religion but extremism adopted by some of the followers of each one of the religions," said Abdullah, flanked by Spain's King Juan Carlos.

Jewish and Christian leaders said Abdullah had taken a momentous step to fight the forces of fanaticism. The king launched the dialogue plan after meeting Pope Benedict XVI last November.

There was caution at how effective the event might be in achieving that goal, given that no Israeli leaders were on the list of 288 religious, political and cultural figures attending the event, including Tony Blair and Jesse Jackson.

"If it moves ahead and there are meetings including official Israeli representatives in Saudi Arabia and it expands this, it will be the wonderful beginning of a very historic process," said Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee.

"If it doesn't do that then it's another photo opportunity," said the British-born rabbi, who is based in Jerusalem but was listed at the conference as American.