The expatriate community here welcomed the initiative of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to build bridges of understanding through inter-faith dialogue conference in Madrid, Spain, which was attended by representatives of the three largest monotheistic religions in the world. “The dialogue conference proclaims a new phase of free intellectual dialogue for human interaction and peaceful coexistence,” said Haari, a Sri Lankan marketing executive working in Kingdom for more than 20 years. “This event confirmed again that the peaceful Muslim world can manage a human dialogue with different civilizations, not only verbally but also through the establishment of specialized organizations and centers,” he said. “I would like to congratulate King Abdullah for this step and efforts in order to make the world a peaceful place,” said Sree Devi Menon, Principal of Al-Khozama International School in Dammam. “I deeply appreciate King Abdullah's initiative for dialogue between various religions, cultures, civilizations and ideologies to build bridges of mutual understanding and co-existence,” said Menon. Abdul Aziz Valiyaveetil, Vice Principal of Al-Hayat International School in Dammam, said the Madrid Conference on Dialogue, which was the brainchild of King Abdullah, is a first step toward world peace. “The cream of theologians from all faiths attended the dialogue conference and showed willingness and cooperation to the King's idea for promoting peace. This in itself is a proof that it is not religion that promotes war and unrest in the world, but bad politics. It was wonderful to see theologians from all parts of the globe and from all religions sit together and find a common platform to work together for peaceful coexistence. I believe that King Abdullah is the most courageous leader of our times who took initiative for such a noble cause,” he said. Majid Biddah, an Egyptian engineer who works as construction consultant in Dammam, said global peace can be achieved only through peaceful means. “It is better late than never and though Madrid is historically the right place for an interfaith dialogue, I personally think that if this had taken place some were in United States or Britain, then the world media would have been forced to cover the event because the conference did not get much media coverage outside and the message was not delivered to everyone,” he felt. “The world media especially channels like CNN and BBC, which have a high viewership, maintained an uncomfortable silence on Madrid Conference and the public in the West was not informed about such an event,” said Biddah. John Thomas, a member of the managing committee at the International Indian School in Dammam, said King Abdullah's initiative is a very noble one in times of unrest. “It is not discord but dialogue which is the need of the hour. I hope this will mark the beginning of a new era of understanding between people of different faiths and that we will be able to come to a common platform and fight the evils like terrorism, war, immorality and climatic issues,” he said. __
