Haaretz Last update - 20:48 03/07/2008
For first time, Israeli rabbi to attend Saudi-sponsored interfaith meet
By The Associated Press
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/998792.html

An Israeli rabbi will attend this month's interfaith conference in Madrid at the invitation of Saudi Arabia. It's the first invitation of its kind.

The invitation could potentially be the first step in wider contacts between the kingdom and Israel, Rabbi David Rosen said on Thursday.

Rosen said Saudi Arabia called the conference, set for Madrid from July 16-18, to bring world religions together to confront common challenges. He said he received an invitation from the World Muslim League, sponsored by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Rosen called it a historic step for them.

On the other hand, he warned that it might be no more than a Saudi attempt to improve its image and that of Islam in the face of criticism over the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and other instances of Islamic extremism.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations. As guardian of Islam's two holiest sites, Saudi Arabia has traditionally shunned any public contact with Israel or its representatives.

Rosen said the invitation stemmed from the Saudi recognition that the world needs to see Muslim initiatives for cooperation and for constructive engagement.

About 200 leaders have been invited to the Madrid gathering, including Islamic notables from Arab countries, as well as Jewish and Christian leaders from around the world. Among them are former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Franklin Graham, son of renowned U.S. evangelist Billy Graham.

Others on the list obtained by the AP are Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa And Pope Shenouda II, head of the Coptic Church.

Those from Arab nations are largely establishment figures from government-condoned institutions, including several prominent clerics representing Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.

Egypt's Grand Sheik Mohammed Seyed Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar, the most prominent Sunni Muslim university, was among those invited, as was Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, who has raised controversy with past statements allowing attacks on Americans in Iraq but has since moderated his stance.

Several Shiite Muslims were also invited, including Iranian Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, who has been an advocate of religious dialogue. It was not immediately known who among those invited had agreed to attend.

Rosen, a former chief rabbi of Ireland who serves as head of interfaith relations for the American Jewish Committee, is a veteran of efforts to bring religious leaders together for talks. He was prominent in negotiations in the 1990s that resulted in Israel and the Vatican establishing diplomatic relations.

On the conference list, he is not identified as an Israeli; rather, as an American Jewish Committee official.

Interviewed by telephone from Tangiers, Morocco, where he is helping to set up a Jewish-Vatican-Moroccan conference, Rosen said the value of the Madrid conference depends on the goal of the Saudi organizers.

"If holding the meeting for the sake of publicity is the whole intention," Rosen said, "then I have no great expectations, and it will be another one-off event of very limited consequence."

However, even then it would not be a lost cause, he said, citing a passage from the Talmud, He who does right for the wrong reason will eventually do right for the right reason.

Last month, Saudi Arabia held the first stage of the effort - a gathering of Muslim scholars, clerics and other figures.

In his opening speech at that meeting, Abdullah told the 500 delegates from around 50 Muslim nations that Muslims must do away with the dangers of extremism to present Islam's good message to the world.

Rosen said the conference could be the beginning of a process "that is in our interest, not just in their interest, in the interest of Israel, the Jewish people and the free world."

"There is more to be gained than lost in constructive engagement with more insular elements in the Muslim world, not only liberal elements, [but] we're not talking about something here that is of irreversible political consequence," he said.

No comment was available Thursday from Saudi embassy in Madrid.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been at the forefront of a drive for better understanding among the world's major religions.

In 2006, Spain and Turkey launched a program called the Alliance of Civilizations, which was meant to foster better understanding between the West and Muslim countries and later formally endorsed by the United Nations.

Spain has no formal role in the Saudi-sponsored conference, other than agreeing to host it in Madrid, the Foreign Ministry has said.