Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz, director emeritus of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of Sacred Heart University, was invited among the representatives of the world’s major faiths to The World Conference on Dialogue. In an unprecedented historic event, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and its World Muslim League convened the conference on July 16-18 in Madrid. The King opened the conference himself, met each of the several hundred guests personally, accompanied by King Juan Carlos of Spain and senior Saudi ministers. Declaring that “Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance,” the Saudi King affirmed that “difference must not lead to conflict and confrontation” and that “the tragedies that have occurred in human history were not attributable to religion, but were the result of extremism with which some adherents of every divinely revealed religion, and of every political ideology have been afflicted.” King Abdullah described the root of religious violence as the deep spiritual crisis in the world today which creates the conditions in which crime, poverty, the disintegration of the family, and terrorism flourish. He called the various religious communities of the world to work together to overcome this spiritual crisis, stating, “There is no solution for us other than to agree on a united approach, through dialogue among religions and civilizations.”

 

Religious leaders in attendance included Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. Rabbi Ehrenkranz observed the importance of the dominant leader in the Muslim world reaching out to leaders of other faiths as a significant milestone in the history of interreligious dialogue and “a courageous signal to the most conservative among Saudi Arabia’s clergy, dominated by the Wahhabi movement of Sunni Islam.” Encouraged by the declaration issued on the final day of the conference, Rabbi Ehrenkranz said, “The gathering itself is an important breakthrough and the Madrid Declaration calls all the world’s religions to act together to combat terrorism in a serious and responsible way.” “I have personally committed the resources of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding to assisting the Muslim World League in its objective for regional rollouts of interfaith conferences in the United States,” said Rabbi Ehrenkranz.