Madrid - Around 200 Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy and other experts on inter-religious dialogue are coming together for a ground-breaking conference from Wednesday to Friday in the Spanish capital Madrid. The World Conference on Dialogue stands out among similar events in that it has been sponsored by Saudi Arabia, a country hitherto known for its severe brand of Sunni Islam and distrust of the influence of other Muslims and non-Muslims.
The conference is scheduled to be inaugurated by Saudi King Abdullah, Spain's King Juan Carlos, Muslim World League Secretary-General Abdullah al-Turki and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Other dignitaries were to include Jorge Sampaio, the United Nations high representative for the Alliance of Civilizations project, which was launched by Spain and Turkey.
Clergy such as Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, a Vatican specialist on inter-religious dialogue, and intellectuals including the writer Karen Armstrong will analyze questions such as the civilizational foundations of dialogue, ways to promote it, and common human values.
The conference will also include representatives of outside the three big monotheistic religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism.
"Just talking to one another is a success in itself," said Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to Spain.
The World Jewish Congress welcomed the conference as a "significant and timely development," saying it was "the duty of religious leaders to work to avoid a 'clash of civilizations'."
The conference, which was expected to shun political questions, was due to issue a final communique.
The event was partly inspired by King Abdullah's meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican in 2007.
The monarch was believed to want to whitewash Saudi Arabia's image following the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, which were carried out mainly by Saudis inspired by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.
The king was also also thought to want to curb Muslim extremism in his country.
Domestic opposition would have made it difficult to stage the conference in Saudi Arabia, analysts said.
The organizers chose Spain, where Muslims, Christians and Jews coexisted peacefully most of the time when large parts of the country were under the rule of Muslim Moors more than 500 years ago.
Dialogue does not aim at uniting religions, because "difference is destined by the will and wisdom of Allah," according to the conference website.
The meeting would consider the role of religions in the fight against "vice, moral decay, family disintegration, and the spread of atheism," the website said.
The exclusion of atheists raised some eyebrows in Spain, where the Catholic Church has rapidly lost influence to more secular ways.
Other critics complained that the participants only included a small number of Shi'a Muslims.
