King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, stressed the need for pursuing a policy of disseminating a culture of dialogue among civilizations and cultures, with the objective of promoting coexistence and mutual understanding and propagating human values at the 3rd Forum of Alliance of Civilizations here on Friday. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opened the two-day conference of the Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), an offshoot of the United Nation, in Rio. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the event and read out the King's speech. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a number of world leaders are attending the event. “This forum, under the theme “Bridging Cultures, Building Peace”, is particularly important in light of the challenges that the world is currently facing. These challenges require cooperative, concerted and integrated endeavors from all of us, especially to jointly confront the violence and terrorism of extremist groups that advocate hatred, reject dialogue and seek to cause havoc and kindle the flames of strife and conflict,” the King said in the speech read out by Prince Saud. “This is the manner in which confrontation can be replaced with concord, and how tensions can be eased, conflicts defused, and peace and security achieved,” the King's speech said. “At the domestic level, we have promoted a nationwide culture of dialogue. We established a National Center for Dialogue in which all sections of Saudi society participate. We have also paid special attention to the development of education program, the eradication of illiteracy, and the provision of vocational training opportunities,” he said. “Our openness to various cultures is illustrated by awarding scholarships to nearly 90,000 male and female students to study at universities in over 14 countries in all the five continents,” the King said. “Our initiative for dialogue among the followers of religions and cultures was launched to dispel misunderstandings, eliminate manifestations of conflict, hostility and hatred and emphasize the vast opportunities of cooperation among all religions without interfering with theological doctrines. The purpose of this initiative is to strengthen and promote closer cooperation and integration with the many active efforts that have been made in this field, so they can all serve the common human values calling for virtue, fraternity and peace among all of humanity. Our initiative has proceeded along parallel political and cultural tracks.” The King also lauded the efforts of the Brazilian president, Spanish premier, Turkish premier and UN secretary general in consolidating the principle of dialogue, understanding and cooperation between the world's states. In the social aspect, King Abdullah said, “The government of my country is strictly working in consolidating the principles of human rights in the government and civil sectors. This is in addition to spreading the culture of human rights in schools and universities. Also, the government of my country supported the efforts of preserving family coherence on the grounds that it is the fundamental pillar for social integration and coherence. Nevertheless, it is the first defense line against juvenile delinquency and their instigation by the advocates of deviant thought. Not only this, but the Kingdom has approved several programs and projects for the development of the Saudi woman to enable her to participate effectively in all aspects of life. I don't say we have achieved everything we aspire to, but we are moving on by Allah's grace.” The King said that the Kingdom strongly believes that cultural multiplicity enriches human civilization so that it has strengthened the efforts of cultural communication with the friendly countries by supporting all the organizations and institutions, which care for culture and thought at the regional and international levels, such as UNESCO where a special function was held to celebrate the distribution of my “Translation Prize” recently.
