Heart Of Islam Visits Soul Of Christianity?

It all happened recently in The Vatican. As you can probably imagine, Saudi Arabia hosts both Meccah and Medina, while the Vatican City is the seat of the Holy See.

Last week, King Abdullah visited the Pope! A landmark event, it was a meeting at the highest level. The topic? How Saudi Arabia would allow a Christian Church to be built, just as the largest Mosque in Europe was built in Italy and overlooks The Vatican!

The standard reply had always been something like, ‘Not possible because there is no mosque inside The Vatican City; so, likewise, none can be built in Saudi Arabia!’ More details of the outcome of the historic meeting:

[....They spoke for about 30 minutes in the Pontiff's private study with the help of interpreters in what both the Vatican and reporters described as a cordial atmosphere.

A Vatican statement said "the presence and hard work of Christians (in Saudi Arabia) was discussed" -- seen as a clear reference to the Vatican's concern over the Christian minority.

Vatican sources said before the meeting that they expected the Pope to raise his concern over the situation of Catholics and other Christians in Saudi Arabia.

The Vatican wants greater rights for the 1 million Catholics who live in Saudi Arabia, most of them migrant workers who are not allowed to practice their religion in public.

They are only allowed to worship in private places, usually homes, and cannot wear signs of their faith in public.

King Abdullah, custodian of Islam's holiest sites in the cities of Mecca and Medina, wore his traditional white robes.

The Vatican said other topics discussed included inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue and "collaboration among Christians, Muslims and Jews for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values, especially those which support the family."

The Pope and the king also discussed the Middle East, particularly the need to find "a just solution to the conflicts that afflict the region, in particular the Israeli-Palestinian (conflict)."....

At the end of the meeting, the king gave the Pope a gold and silver sword studded with precious jewels, in keeping with a bedouin custom the Saudis also follow when foreign leaders visit their country.

The king also presented Benedict with a small silver and gold statue depicting a palm tree and a man riding a camel....]

UPDATE – Tuesday, November 27, 2007:

Further reading:

Vatican Accepts Muslim Call for Dialogue
KTAL Shreveport Sun, 25 Nov 2007 12:30 PM PST
(Vatican City) — The Vatican is expected to agree to enter into serious dialogue with Muslim scholars. It would be an unprecedented effort by Christian leaders and their Islamic counterparts to work on overcoming key misunderstandings.

Vatican to accept Muslim dialogue call soon
Deepika Sun, 25 Nov 2007 9:15 AM PST
VATICAN CITY, Nov 25 (Reuters) The Vatican plans to respond positively and very soon to an appeal by Muslim scholars for an unprecedented dialogue between Christianity and Islam, Roman Catholic cardinals and Islam experts say.