A US envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference has praised Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz's initiative for interfaith dialogue. In comments he made to the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Sada Cumber, the Pakistani-American envoy of US President George W. Bush to the OIC, lauded the initiative made by King Abdullah for conducting interfaith dialogue. He said that though interfaith conferences, which will be held in different parts of the world, King Abdullah wants the Muslim world to seek the opinion of Muslims all over the world about dialogue with the people of other faiths. Cumber said Washington values the King's initiative, and thus believes that King Abdullah has launched a very important initiative. “We always encourage knowing more about each other and building a society where our children are educated and they are heavily prosperous and there is stability all over the world,” said Cumber. “When researching the OIC's 10–year plan, which calls for improving education, science and technology, the status of women and human rights – my goodness, I think the values Muslims aspire to are exactly as the aspirations of Americans.” Cumber said the initiative “is a very positive movement towards dialogue,” adding that he will participate in any meeting within the framework of the initiative. He said Muslims' suspicions about America are “misconceptions.” “If you look at the core values, the pure ethics of America, respect for religion is an integral part of our core values,” he said, “so I don't know where this has come from.” He said there are more than 12,000 mosques in America.” “There are five million Muslims practicing their faith freely,” he said. Cumber said he will visit the Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates very soon, then he will fly to Senegal to meet with President Abdullah Wad in his capacity as the present Chairman of the Islamic Summit. He hoped that he would continue in his position after the end of the tenure of President Bush. __
