Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz valued the effective participation by Saudi and French academics and researchers in "The Saudi-French Symposium on Civilization Dialogue," efforts by them to make the symposium successful and the proposals and recommendations they will make. In a speech delivered on his behalf by Minister of Higher Educaiton Dr. Khalid Ala'anqari at the opening of the king-sponsored symposium, the king prayed to the Almighty Allah that the dialogue will help replace conflicts and wars among nations with understanding and peace. The king considered the symposium as one of the fruits of the Conference on Dialogue among the Followers of the Religions and Cultures which was held in Madrid in July 2008 and the following Forum on Religion Dialogue in New York in November 2008. The king said, "Based on the eternal principles of Islam which urge justice, equality and peace and call for building, friendship and fraternity among people, I welcome you in this blessed symposium which deals with an important issue to establish contacts among peoples and transform feelings of hatred among them into affection and understanding. The issue is civilization dialogue among Saudi and French academics and researchers." The king added, "As the call for holding the conference on dialogue among religions and cultures was a clear message for all peoples of the world that Islam is a religion of affection, fraternity and peace, making it enjoy all support and encouragement because dialogue has become a clear and inevitable way to serve humanity in view of a new world order that made all countries and peoples of the world as one global village, peace must prevail among them to replace violence, affection must prevail to replace hatred and contempt and dialogue and understanding must prevail to replace boycott and conflict." The king said, "We all hope that contacts among Saudi and French academics and researchers will continue with emphasis on the rights of the human who is proud of his religion and beliefs, achievement of maximum constructive, positive results for knowledge contacts and showing the true image of Islam's tolerance, moderation and the suitability of its rules for solving the problems of humans and achievement of peace and tranquility for them." The king said he will support the participants to achieve the desired goals and thanked them for the blessed efforts achieving integration and sympathy among humans and aiming at boosting affection and solidarity among peoples.
