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"The challenges facing the (Muslim) nation are difficult at this time, as its enemies -- including those extremists among its own people -- have joined forces in a flagrant aggressiveness to distort the ... rightfulness and tolerance of Islam," the Saudi king said.
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MECCA (AFP)---Saudi King Abdullah reiterated a call for dialogue between Islam and other religions during a gathering of Muslim scholars to discuss eventual inter-faith talks.
"You meet today to tell the world ... that we are the voice of justice and moral human values and the voice of coexistence as well as just and reasonable dialogue," he said Wednesday at the opening session of the three-day International Islamic Conference in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
However, the monarch pointed out that among the major challenges now facing Muslims is combating a growing extremism.
"The challenges facing the (Muslim) nation are difficult at this time, as its enemies -- including those extremists among its own people -- have joined forces in a flagrant aggressiveness to distort the ... rightfulness and tolerance of Islam," he said.
King Abdullah, whose kingdom endured years of struggle with the homegrown extremists of Al-Qaeda, added that his call for dialogue among religions is "to face up to the challenges of introversion and ignorance ... so that the world understands the principles of the good message of Islam."
In March, Abdullah proposed inter-faith talks among Christians, Jews and Muslims in a first for the kingdom, which is home to two of the three holiest shrines in Islam.
"The way to reach out to the other will be through the common values that were preached by God's messages, which were sent for the good of the human being," Abdullah said.
"We will start our dialogue with the others with a confidence derived from our belief in God ... and we will argue in a polite manner," he said, acknowledging that there will be points of convergence, as well as differences.
"What we disagree upon we will refer to Allah's saying (in the Muslim holy book, the Koran): You have your religion and I have mine," he added, in an apparent willingness to respect the beliefs of others.
Saudi Arabia remains the only Arab Muslim country to ban all non-Islamic religious practices, despite having a large population of non-Muslim foreigners.
