page_title: Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
section_title: Interfaith dialogue
hierarchical_section_title: Abdullah of Saudi Arabia / King of Saudi Arabia / Interfaith dialogue
caption_attribution_description: US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
context_page_description: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques from the death of his half-brother, King Fahd, on 1 August 2005 until his own death in 2015.
  Abdullah, like Fahd, was one of the many sons of Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. Abdullah held important political posts throughout most of his adult life. In 1961 he became mayor of Mecca, his first public office. The following year, he was appointed commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, a post he was still holding when he became king. He also served as deputy defense minister and was named crown prince when Fahd took the throne in 1982. After King Fahd suffered a serious stroke in 1995, Abdullah became the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia until ascending the throne a decade later.
  During his reign he maintained close relations with United States and United Kingdom and bought billions of dollars worth of defense equipment from both states. He also gave women the right to vote for municipal councils and to compete in the Olympics. Furthermore, Abdullah maintained the status quo when there were waves of protest in the kingdom during the Arab Spring.
context_section_description: In November 2007, King Abdullah visited Pope Benedict XVI in the Apostolic Palace, being first Saudi monarch to do so. In March 2008, he called for a "brotherly and sincere dialogue between believers from all religions".
  In June 2008, he held a conference in Mecca to urge Muslim leaders to speak with one voice with Jewish and Christian leaders. He discussed with, and obtained approval from, Saudi and non-Saudi Islamic scholars to hold the interfaith dialogue. In the same month, Saudi Arabia and Spain agreed to hold the interfaith dialogue in Spain. The historic conference finally took place in Madrid in July 2008, wherein religious leaders of different faiths participated, and which later led to the 2010 proclamation of World Interfaith Harmony Week.
  He had never previously made overtures for dialogue with eastern religious leaders, such as Hindus and Buddhists. The Mecca conference discussed a paper on dialogue with monotheists—highlighting the monotheistic religions of southeast Asia, including Sikhism—in the third axis of the fourth meeting, titled "With Whom We Talk," presented by Sheikh Badrul Hasan Al Qasimi. The session was chaired by Ezz Eddin Ibrahim, cultural adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates. The session also discussed a paper presented on coordination among Islamic institutions on Dialogue by Abdullah bin Omar Nassif, Secretary General of the World Islamic Council for Preaching and Relief and a paper on dialogue with divine messages, presented by Professor Mohammad Sammak—Secretary General of the Islamic Spiritual Summit in Lebanon.
  In November 2008, he and his government arranged discussion at the United Nations General Assembly to "promote dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, as well as activities related to a culture of peace" and calling for "concrete action at the global, regional and subregional levels." It brought together Muslim and non-Muslim nations to eradicate preconceptions as to Islam and terrorism, with world leaders—including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli President Shimon Peres, US President George W. Bush and King Abdullah II of Jordan—attending.
  In 2011, an agreement for the establishment of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna was signed between the governments of Austria, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. The official opening of the centre was in November 2012, with foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal as its first general secretary and Austria's former federal justice minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner as the first deputy general secretary.
caption: Abdullah in a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, 5 January 2014
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