The King Abdullah International Center for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Vienna will be opened on Monday in the presence of Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other dignitaries.
More than 600 delegates including religious leaders from around the world are expected to attend the opening. The Vienna center was established on the initiative of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, said Faisal bin Muammar, its secretary-general. The center’s board of directors includes representatives of different religions and cultures, he said. “King Abdullah’s vision has now become an institution,” he said, adding that the king believed that dialogue is the ideal way to promote world peace.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Ahmed Tayeb, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s office in the Makkah region, commended King Abdullah’s interfaith initiative, saying it would be crowned with the Vienna center’s opening.He made this comment while addressing a seminar at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah.
Tayeb commended OIC’s efforts to confront Islamophobia by setting up a center to monitor such anti-Islam activities around the world.The seminar was attended by OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Secretary-General Adnan Mandoura, Russian Consul General Sergei Kuznetsov and US Consul General Anne S. Casper. – Arabnews
