Saudi Interfaith Summit Faces Challenges

"I advise King Abdullah," wrote Sulaiman Al Khuraishy, that he get his interlocutors to "acknowledge Islam as a holy religion and . . . Muhammed as God's Prophet. If they refuse these, how on Earth can we have a conference with those who don't acknowledge your religion and your Prophet?"

A far greater challenge than internal opposition, perhaps, is whether Abdullah's envisioned dialogue can have meaningful impact, unlike so many past religious conferences. The answer to that question revolves around two dilemmas for the king's advisers: namely, what to put on the agenda and whom to invite.

The king said the purpose of a dialogue would be "to agree on something that would maintain humanity against those who tamper [with] religions, ethics and family systems."

On the one hand, an agenda that addresses such issues as family values, the need for world peace and other already universally agreed upon matters runs the risk of drawing a global yawn. In such a case, the outcome would match the prediction of one Saudi lawyer who called it "a wonderful gimmick [that] . . . will change nothing."

Yet an interfaith dialogue that tackles the most vexing issues in the widening rift between Islam and the West could quickly lead the conversation into an impasse. That is because most of these contentious matters are political ones, ranging from U.S. foreign policy to France's ban on Islamic head scarves in public schools.

"I don't see where it would be appropriate to get involved in hard-core political issues" in such a dialogue, Esposito said. The challenge for organizers, he added, will be to "develop a program of substance where issues can be discussed both conceptually and practically."

One Saudi official, speaking on background, declined to discuss specifics but said the agenda "will surprise you. It's going to be big."

A second dilemma for the Saudis is who would participate and, specifically, would Israeli Jews be on the roster? In the absence of a conclusive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, it is difficult to imagine Israelis being invited to a Saudi-organized interfaith conference, whether it was held in the kingdom or elsewhere.

Jewish reaction to Abdullah's announcement was swift and favorable. Israel's Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press: "Our hand is outstretched to any peace initiative and any dialogue that is aimed at bringing an end to terror and violence."

The Jerusalem Post called it "a remarkable development that should be warmly welcomed by the Jewish people." At the same time, the paper said, "it makes as much sense to reach out to Jews and boycott Israel as it would to reach out to Christians and boycott the pope, or to reach out to Muslims and boycott the Saudis, for that matter. The Saudis should understand that Jews are indivisible, since they claim the same for Muslims."

At a recent news conference, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, deflected a question about Israeli attendance, saying that "it is an interfaith [initiative], which means the three monotheistic religions, so the Jewish faith of course is part of that."

For the moment, said one of Saud's aides, "no one will answer this question."

Caryle Murphy is an American journalist living in Saudi Arabia. She won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1991 while covering the Middle East for The Washington Post. This article originally appeared in the Star-Ledger of Newark.