Saudi king's UN appearance has domestic audience

Saudi King Abdullah (L) poses with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York November 11, 2008. Abdullah will push for religious tolerance at a U.N. meeting opening on Wednesday, aiming not only to impress the West but also to send a message to domestic opponents of his reforms.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian King Abdullah will push for religious tolerance at a U.N. meeting opening on Wednesday, aiming not only to impress the West but also to send a message to domestic opponents of his reforms.

"The king wants to drive a message to the Western world: to change the idea that Islam is a religion of war and terror. But he also wants to send a message of tolerance back home where he has a problem," said Jamal Khajoggi, editor of al-Watan daily and a member of the delegation accompanying the king.

"The king wants to change the mind-set of the Saudi people and its clerical establishment."

Abdullah, promoted by Saudi Arabia as a moderate, met Pope Benedict in the Vatican last year, brought Sunni and Shi'ite clerics to Mecca in March and religious leaders to a Madrid conference in June.

It is at his initiative that the U.N. General Assembly is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday for a debate on "interfaith" issues and the "culture of peace."

U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and leaders and diplomats from some 60 other countries are due to take part.

At a dinner hosted by Ban on Tuesday evening, the Saudi monarch will for the first time be at a gathering with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Saudi officials said there were no plans for close encounters.

Critics dismissed the General Assembly meeting as a public relations exercise. New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday world leaders should press Abdullah to end systematic religious discrimination in Saudi Arabia.

"There is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, yet the kingdom asks the world to listen to its message of religious tolerance," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group's Middle East director. "The dialogue should be about where religious intolerance runs deepest, and that includes Saudi Arabia."

SHARED VALUES

U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua who is hosting the meeting has played down its religious aspect, saying it is more about shared values.

"We are not here to talk about religion," he told a news conference. "We are here to talk about tapping our innermost values and putting them at the service of decision-making to help the world come out of the multiple converging crises of the moment."

The Saudi clerical establishment, which belongs to the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, views other Muslims particularly Shi'ites, as infidels and shuns contact with non-Muslims. It has not backed Abdullah's initiatives.

The Grand Mufti, who represents the state's official views on religious affairs, did not go to the gathering in Spain, which was attended by U.S. Jewish rabbis.

Non-Muslims cannot practice their faiths in public in Saudi Arabia and those accused of insulting Islam face beheading.

Khajoggi said reform would be slow to come.

"The king can change positions, he can hire and fire people but he cannot change the mind-set of people or the clerical establishment quickly. It has to be gradual."