Saudis underwrite organization to bring world’s religions under one roof

(BeliefNetNews) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is financing a new organization designed to bring all the world’s religions together.

“The organization hopes to prevent conflict through interfaith dialogue,” writes Spencer Kimball for the German news site Deutsche Welle.  ”The foreign ministers of Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain signed the founding treaty of a new international organization designed to foster dialogue between the world’s major religions on Thursday.”

“The thesis is valid that world peace cannot exist without peace between the world’s major religions,” Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said during the signing ceremony in Vienna, according to Deutsche Welle:

The King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, initiated and financed largely by Saudi money, is set to have its seat in Vienna. Plans envision an organization with a governing body composed of 12 representatives from the world’s five largest religions.

The governing body is set to be staffed by two Muslims (Sunni and Shiite), three Christians (Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox), a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Jew. The organization will also have a consulting body with 100 representatives from the five world religions plus other faiths as well as academics and members of civil society.

Austria’s Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said that the organization’s structures are designed to ensure that none of the represented religions dominates the organization. The three founding states are also open to the membership of other countries, according to Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez Garcia-Herrera.

Saudi King Abdullah initiated the idea for the center after visiting Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2007, the first Saudi monarch to do so. Shortly thereafter, King Abdullah stated that Christians and Muslims should offer a common message of peace to humanity.

Abdullah then initiated an interfaith dialogue in Mecca in 2008 followed by a second meeting in Madrid with Jewish representation. A third meeting took place in Vienna’s Hofburg in 2009, where the concept of the organization was agreed upon.

The Initiative of Liberal Muslims protested Thursday’s signing ceremony in Vienna, saying that the center was an attempt by Saudi Arabia to spread a conservative form of Islam. (Read more)

At the end of this article (above), Rev.William E. Swing, (retired) bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, is mentioned as taking part in this conference. Rev. Swing is the founder of the United Religions Initiative (URI), and was instrumental at the guiding of the Interfaith agenda. Swing and the participating countries signed the first charter in the year 2000.

The URI is composed of 527 Cooperation Circles (CCs) in 78 countries worldwide. The United Nations asked him to host an interfaith service honoring the 50th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter.

Swing is the recipient of many honorary doctoral degrees including the Jesuit-sponsored University of San Francisco.[1] There are some other participants in the URI who are affiliated with the Jesuits.[2] According to Barbara Aho:

"Shortly after September 11, 2001, the founder of the U.N.-affiliated United Religions Initiative, Episcopal Bishop William E. Swing, announced that members of any religion who hold to the fundamentals of their particular “scriptures” should be classified as “terrorists.” Bishop Swing based his remarks to participants at a URI meeting in Washington, D.C. on the fact that the Scriptures of all religions contain violent content which must be removed in order to prevent future acts of terrorism."

As Swing builds this interfaith bridge into the Aquarian New Age millennium of tolerance, he has gained financial support from globalist George Soros.[3] It is likely that genuine Christian evangelism will soon come to an end.

Advisors to the URI Council

Participating Countries

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3:28

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