Saudi King’s Perestroika Moment

Abdullah bucked the Wahabi establishment in promoting open dialogue among all religions at interfaith conference.

Muslim World League Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki at press conference. “We hold Judaism as a religion in the highest regard,” he told The Jewish Week. Walter Ruby

by Walter Ruby
Special To The Jewish Week

Madrid — Attending the Saudi-sponsored World Conference on Dialogue here last week and listening to a number of high-level Saudi officials espouse mutual acceptance among religions — and the necessity of opening their country up to the rest of the world — I was left with the odd sensation of having been a bit player in this movie before.
Indeed, as a Moscow-based correspondent almost 20 years ago, I witnessed the dizzying changes wrought by perestroika, the historical reform process initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that transformed, and eventually dissolved, the Soviet Union.
The more recent effort was championed by an 84-year-old monarch, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who is the standard bearer of a political elite that believes the hidebound Saudi

system must reform itself from within if it is to survive the pressures of globalization.
King Abdullah was careful to hold the conference, the first such Saudi-sponsored encounter with the world’s other major faiths, in Madrid, rather than at home in Riyadh, where opposition to his initiative by influential members of the ultra-conservative Wahabi religious establishment is reported to be intense. But these proceedings were notable in that Saudi officials from Abdullah on down advocated a dialogue of equals among the world’s faiths, including with Jews, a people labeled only three years ago as “the brothers of apes and pigs,” by a prominent Muslim cleric on Saudi state television.
Abdullah is said to have decided to get involved personally in building bridges between religions after having being urged to do so by Pope Benedict XVI during a meeting in the Vatican last year. The king signaled his determination to push forward by holding a conference of 700 top Muslim clerics and scholars in Mecca in early June, which ended with a proclamation urging dialogue among the world’s faiths.
Opening last week’s conference alongside King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero at a royal palace on the edge of Madrid (selected for its isolation by the security-conscious Spaniards), Abdullah, who appeared animated and vigorous despite his age, said he had come to proclaim a message that “Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance” and a call for “constructive dialogue among followers of religions.”
The same message ran through all of the deliberations of the conference, including a final communiqué issued by the Muslim World League (MWL), the Saudi-created and Mecca-based body that ran the proceedings. It called for “unified international efforts to combat terrorism” and urged Muslims and non-Muslims alike “to reject theories that call for the clash of civilizations.”
Former British Prime Minister and international Middle East envoy Tony Blair told The Jewish Week, “This is a hugely important event — the first time that Jews, as well as Christians and other religions, have been welcomed to a religious dialogue sponsored by the Saudis.”
Some 35 Jewish leaders, mostly from the U.S., including establishment figures like Rabbi Arthur Schneier, the only Jewish leader asked to speak from the podium, to left-leaning Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine, were among the 200 delegates representing not only of the three Abrahamic faiths, but also Eastern religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
Abdullah Al-Turki, secretary-general of the MWL, stressed to this reporter that “We hold Judaism as a religion in the highest regard,” adding, “This conference is not about politics but about accentuating the common human dimension shared by all religions.”
Al-Turki sought to keep all mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict out of the proceedings, a task made easier by the almost complete absence of Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
Saleh Al-Namlah, deputy minister of culture and information, observed in an interview that “historically, Islam is a moderate religion” and that “we are determined to prevent extremists from hijacking Islam.” Al-Namleh said the conference might not lead to immediate results, but added, “we are engaged in a process of reform, not one or two shots.”
Robert Lacey, author of “The Kingdom” (1981), who is now working on a new book on Saudi Arabia, told me that things have changed dramatically in that country since Abdullah took over in 2006, but there remains strong resistance to the king’s reform efforts from within the Wahabi religious establishment. Noting that only two out of the 24 members of the Ulema, the highest body of Saudi clerics, were in attendance in Madrid, a sure sign of disapproval of Abdullah’s initiative, Lacey said, “There is no question that this conference is a decisive break between the king and the religious conservatives and no one knows how that will play out back home.”
Still, Lacey asserted, the King’s hand is strengthened by “the enormous popularity among the Saudi masses of his reform agenda,” including allowing elections to municipal councils and making it easier for women to work. Nevertheless, he emphasized, all bets are off as to whether the reform trend will continue after Abdullah dies because several of his would-be successors from within the royal family are far more conservative than he is.
No one articulated the spirit of Saudi perestroika better than the father- and-son team of Sheik Abdullah Bin Bayyah, vice president of the Jeddah-based International Union of Muslim Scholars and his thirty-something son, Cheikhna Bin Bayyah, who divides his time between business operations in Saudi Arabia and his duties as executive director of the Global Center for Renewal and Guidance in London.
The elder Bin Bayyah, who wore a long flowing robe and keffiyeh, remarked, “Without a doubt, there are a lot of influential people opposed to what the king is doing, but after participating in this historic event, I feel confident that there is no turning back.”
His son, who was clad in a stylish business suit, said he looks forward to the day when he will enjoy the same freedom of expression in Jeddah as he does in London. “What is happening today in Saudi society is a badly needed paradigm shift related to the age of globalization,” he said. “People like my father understand the need to open things up, so let them get on with the task. If they don’t get the job done, my generation is going to step forward and do it for them.”
Walter Ruby attended the Madrid Interfaith Conference in his capacity as Muslim-Jewish Relations program officer of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

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