An inter-faith forum based on a Saudi Arabian initiative is to be held in the Spanish capital in mid-July, the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL) has announced. Participants in the Madrid conference will include representatives from the "followers of God's messages and other cultures," according to a statement on the MWL's website. "The international conference for dialogue will... discuss cooperation between communities from different religions and cultures over common human values," the MWL’s secretary general Abdullah al-Turki said in the statement.
In March, King Abdullah proposed talks among the three largest monotheistic religions in a first for the kingdom, which is home to two of the three holiest shrines in Islam. Meeting in the holy city of Mecca in early June, leading Islamic scholars also proposed creating a center to promote relations between religions. They urged the Saudi monarch to bring together specialists from Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other beliefs to lay the foundations for a successful dialogue.
In May, the World Jewish Congress welcomed the Saudi king's initiative.
