King
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, right, receives Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, left. Iran and Saudi Arabia are long-standing regional
rivals and had taken opposite stances on the uprising in Syria. (Al
Arabiya)
By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES
King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, of
Saudi Arabia, told a summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference
(OIC), held in Mecca -- the birthplace of Islam --, that the violence
that is claiming Muslim lives across the globe was due to division of
the Islamic world.
“Because of division, the blood of the Muslim nation is shedding,” King Abdullah said the summit’s opening speech.
He called for cooperation between Muslim states as a way to safeguard “the dignity and history of Muslims.”
He also called for the establishment of a center of dialogue between Islamic doctrines.
The OIC represents 1.5 billion
Muslims worldwide and that it is holding a meeting Tuesday night in
Mecca, the holiest Islamic city, is of particular significance –the 26th
of the holy month of Ramadan is the night when the Koran was revealed
to the Prophet Mohammed, according to Muslim tradition.
Foreign ministers who held a
preparatory meeting on Monday recommended the suspension of Syria’s
membership, the OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said.
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