Ain-Al-Yaqeen - February 24, 2006

		February 24, 2006

THE CUSTODIAN OF THE TWO HOLY MOSQUES ISSUES HIS DIRECTIVES TO HOLD THE SIXTH NATIONAL DIALOGUE MEETING AT AL-JOUF UNDER THE THEME "EDUCATION: REALITY AND METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT."
PRINCE TURKI AL-FAISAL: THE KINGDOM AND THE UNITED STATES HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF COOPERATION AND KING ABDULLAH STRESSES ON FRANKNESS.
WE SUPPORT THE STABILITY OF IRAQ AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE AS WELL AS STABILITY AND HARMONY IN LEBANON.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has directed the Sixth National Meeting, scheduled to take place in Al-Jouf region, to focus on the educational development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The theme of the next dialogue forum to be held in the northern city of Al-Jouf will be: "Education: Reality and Methods of Development," as the King Abdul Aziz National Dialogue Center announced.

The purpose of the forum as announced by the center's president, Sheikh Saleh Al-Hussayen, is to determine whether the existing educational system fulfills the needs of the local labor market.

Al-Hussayen said the topic was selected on the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who initiated the dialogue forum. The choice of the topic was timely as it comes in the wake of calls for educational reform, he pointed out. Before the forum begins, a number of discussions and meetings will be held around the country at which participants and members of the public will express opinions and offer suggestions.

He noted that the meeting will provide a good opportunity to educationists either at the level of the governmental education or at the level of non-governmental education to exchange views in this respect.

In the previous forums, the educational system has never been a subject by itself but it was discussed in all of them. Many participants have spoken of the need to revise the country's education system. Most feel the present system produces students who are experts at memorization but who cannot think logically and rationally.

In the most recent forum, the fifth, the theme was "Us and the Other" which dealt with how Saudis relate to the rest of the world. A majority of participants were fiercely critical of the Saudi curriculum which blames "the other" for most international problems.

Faisal Ibn Muammar, secretary-general of the center, emphasized the significance of education as it plays a central role in the country's overall development. "More than half of the Saudi population is youth. This fact encouraged us to select the subject," he said. Education constitutes the major pillar for development and progress, he added.

He pointed out that the youth constitute more than 50 percent of the total population of the Kingdom.

The dialogue center was founded in 2003 on instructions of King Abdullah when he was crown prince. It provided a suitable venue for Saudis to express their viewpoints on various issues. The dialogue forums have been instrumental in promoting a culture of dialogue in Saudi society.

On the other hand Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal attended a reception hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York.

Prince Turki Al-Faisal held a session of question and answers at the CFR in New York

He said the Kingdom and the United States have had a long history of cooperation. We've gone through ups and downs. We've gone through difficult periods and easy periods -- honeymoons and divorces and all sorts of compilations of relationships that have survived the test of time, and I think will continue to do so.

As ambassador to your great country, not only am I privileged, but also I think I am truly the beneficiary of a very great opportunity, not just to participate in developing the relationship between the two countries but also to continue my education here. Lawrenceville and Georgetown did what they did for me and you have the result in front of you.

In two, three, four or five years' time when I leave here, I hope to be a better man than when I came here. And I think the American people are a people that are to be admired and respected for their accomplishments, not just in humanitarian affairs but also for literally maintaining the peace for the last 50 years or so since the Second World War.

Now, many of you will have things to say contrary to that, but I think overall, as far as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is concerned, in our relationship with the US, we've had a mutually beneficial relationship whereby both of us benefited from the other. And I can safely say, and I think proudly say, that it is a relationship not just one of oil for security but, more broadly speaking, a relationship of a people to people.

Literally, hundreds of thousands of Saudis have passed through the gates of the United States, either seeking education, as I did, or health care, as thousands of Saudis have done, or simply to practice business, which is one of the major contributions that your country has made to the international community. It is the kind of business activity that is promoted and literally supported by your actions and your activities and encouraged as a means of widening the cake, if you like, or widening the circle of the cake that can be shared by people everywhere. And we definitely in Saudi Arabia have shared in that cake.

And if you see Saudi Arabia today, it is in fervor. It is a country that is moving forward at great speed, both economically and socially and even politically, despite what you may read in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

But otherwise, I think what makes this a very important relationship for both our peoples is that as I was saying goodbye to the king and I asked him, "Your Majesty, how should I deal with President Bush and the American people?" And he turned to me without batting an eye and he said just be frank with them. And I think that's the kind of relationship that we aspire to and pursue with you.

On Iraq Prince Turki said: We are doing quite a bit. As you know, since the toppling of Saddam's regime, immediately the kingdom initiated an aid package to the Iraqi people that included not just humanitarian aid and services and so on but also a field hospital that operated for nearly a year in Baghdad treating Iraqis. Unfortunately, when the security situation worsened in Iraq, we had to pull out our representation at that time.

We have also committed ourselves to the Madrid aid effort to Iraq by committing ourselves to providing $1 billion of aid to Iraq. And just from November to the present, we have been contacting and engaging with all parties in Iraq to urge them to come together and form a kind of national reconciliation effort. In Jeddah, we held a conference for the Arab League last December, I think it was, at which time the decision to go to Cairo and invite Iraqi political and other leaders to come to Cairo took place. And that meeting occurred and the Iraqis who were involved represented all walks of life in present day Iraq. And they got over their differences, whether Sunni, Shi'a, Kurdish, Turkomen; you name it, they have it in Iraq.

And they, if you like, issued a manifesto from that meeting which foresaw the convening of another and wider conference in Baghdad, either at the end of this month or at the beginning of next month.

And when your secretary of State visited with King Abdullah in November last year, she asked him to urge the Sunnis to participate and to be proactive in the political developments in Iraq. And he told her: "Madame Secretary, I'm not going to do that. What I am going to do is to urge all Iraqis to be proactive in that political process because we don't want to be identified with simply one sect or one ethnic division in Iraq."

And that has been the case. There have been contacts in Saudi Arabia and outside Saudi Arabia with all of the factions in Iraq to urge them to reach a national reconciliation, that hopefully the elections that took place in January -- because of the participation of the Sunnis in greater numbers than ever before and now in the negotiations for the formation of the government, they are playing a very important role there, and along with the Shi'as and the Kurds and those who do not identify themselves with any particular sect.

So that effort is not only being supported by Saudi Arabia but was actually initiated by the kingdom through the Jeddah meeting in December of last year.

Asked if and when there is a government in Iraq, Saudi Arabia is prepared to deal with that government? Prince Turki said absolutely. We have dealt in the past with all of the interim governments that came to Iraq and we've urged all of the factions involved to think more in terms of being Iraqi than being either Shi'a or Sunni or Kurd or Turkomen or Yezidi or any of the subdivisions of Iraq.

One other thing I think that has not been much reported on in the American press and even in the Western press is that during the last parliamentary elections in Iraq, particularly in the Sunni areas in Iraq, the Iraqi resistance played a very leading role in protecting the polling booths in those areas from attacks by the so-called jihadi foreign elements, like Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi and those who operate within his sphere. And they did that as a signal, I think, to all of us and, more particularly, to the rest of the Iraqi people that they were willing to be constructive in allowing the Iraqi people to have full representation in the parliament.

Prince Turki said that after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the lawlessness and the, you know, simple grabbing at everything, people -- mob rule, as it were, took over in Iraq and there were not enough troops to police the areas at that time. But we understand from our American colleagues now is that the training of Iraqi security forces, both police and the army, is running apace and is increasing in intensity, and as they acquire more know-how and more capability, they take over the policing and guarding of all of Iraqi territories and institutions.

And so, not being on the ground, as it were, one has to judge by what one sees in reporting by the press. Some of it is rather positive; some of it is rather negative. And the press gets away with that, but if you are a politician trying to do that, you'd be called to be flip-flopping.

On reforms in the Middle East Prince Turki said as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, the issue of economic, social and political reform is both a horizontal and a vertical issue because it comes up from the bottom, from the average citizen, and it also comes down from the top from King Abdullah and his government.

In the year 2003, before his death, the late King Fahd spoke to the consultative assembly about his vision for a reform program for Saudi Arabia. And he summarized it in six points.

The first point is to stress and re-stress the direction of the religious ethos, if you like, of Saudi Arabia as that being identified by the Prophet Mohammed -- Peace Be Upon Him -- who when he was asked, "tell us who you are, Muslims," he said we are a people of the middle -- in other words, not zealous but not lax for Islam. And the king at that time urged the mosque preachers and the higher religious authorities in the kingdom, and even in the schools and the universities where religion is taught, to emphasize this practice of the Prophet Mohammed.

The second point that he stressed was the rivaling of the political participation in the decision-making process in the kingdom.

The third point that he stressed was that women have an equal role to play in the development of Saudi Arabia as men.

The fourth point that he stressed was revamping of our educational system so that individual Saudis can be taught the skills and the know-how to be able to participate in the marketplace in the modern world.

The fifth point that he stressed, of course, was economic reform to allow for the creation of jobs and industry and so on to absorb the increasingly growing number of young people that are coming on the job market in Saudi Arabia.

And the sixth point that he made was that the government machinery, the bureaucracy, should be streamlined so that it can perform on all of those issues, and so on.

And if you look at the record from 2003 until today, you will find the following: We've had a national dialogue center established in the kingdom where every year a topic is chosen to be discussed by the people of Saudi Arabia. And subcommittees meet in the various provinces in Saudi Arabia in public and on television to discuss various issues like the role of women in life, the role of -- the issue of terrorism, and the issue of dealing with the other -- meaning the non-Muslims -- the issue of youth, et cetera. And these have been going on for the last four years and expanding as time goes on.

The other thing that has happened, of course, is that we've had municipal elections where 50 percent of the municipal councils have been elected by Saudi citizens. And these councils are now operating. And hopefully in the next round of elections in three years' time universal suffrage will also be applied to this to include women, as they were not included in the last elections.

As far as women are concerned, all of the education and job opportunities in the kingdom have been opened to all women at any time that they want. And as a matter of fact, today in Saudi Arabia, we have more women graduates from the universities than we have men graduates. And on a uniform basis, they far outclass their male colleagues in that field.

So these are just a few of the things that have happened over the last three years. And as I mentioned in my introduction, the economic boom that is taking place in the Kingdom today is not solely due to the increase in oil income in the Kingdom. But rather, I think more than that it is an affirmation of the people's confidence in the system in Saudi Arabia. People are putting their life savings and their money -- and those who have money abroad -- for example, like in the United States or in Europe and so on -- have brought back some of that money to invest in a very booming market that gives you, I think over the last month or so, more than 25 percent for your investment. I don't think you can beat that anywhere nowadays. But it is that kind of development and progress that we've had in the kingdom.

About Iraq Prince Turki said people will resist a foreign occupation any time they see it in their country. And I think the political process that is now in process -- and as I mentioned earlier, the fact that all of the political factions in Iraq are now participating and the fact that the resistance cooperated and protected the polling booths in Iraq shows that the people of Iraq want to move forward. They want to benefit from the present rather than look upon the past. And this is where the kingdom, and I think other countries, are moving as well with them.

Mort Zuckerman with US News and World Report asked the following question: I'm very happy to see you again. Many in the West really, I think, are stunned by the outbreak of the kind of almost culture of death that has come out of the world of Islam, manifested, of course, in the form of suicide bombing. I wonder if you could give us some insight as to why that fever is almost raging across the Islamic world and whether or not in your comments you might also discuss whether or not the export of the Wahhabi religion from Saudi Arabia contributed to that in any way?

Prince Turki: Thank you, Mr. Zuckerman. And I follow your writings in your magazine, of course, and that's been a constant refrain in your writings.

You call it the culture of death and put it in the context of -- almost as if behind every Muslim mosque there is someone ready with a suicide belt to explode himself against the West or against other interests. I would disagree with that impression. Inasmuch as the West was surprised, if you like, by this culture of death, I can assure you that the majority of Muslims were even more surprised because this culture of death runs counter to everything that Muslims hold dear to themselves.

There is a verse in the Qur'an which says that killing one soul is like killing all of mankind. And other verses in the Qur'an refer to the innate value of life and the importance of safeguarding and guaranteeing that life, even in time of war.

The Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him, when he was in conflict with first the Romans, and then after his death the Muslims followed in their conflict with the Persians, strict instructions were given to the army commanders not to kill innocent people, not to attack places of worship, not to cut trees and, generally, to be as embracing as they could be of the non-combatants that they meet along the way.

What I can tell you is this culture of death, unfortunately, is being promoted and practiced by a cult. And religious cults have arisen in all religions throughout history. This is, I think, the most recent manifestation of that in which the cult leader has a cult philosophy to which cult recruits devote themselves and sacrifice their lives without question about the viability or the legality or the justifiability of their action. And unfortunately, bin Laden has managed to propagate this cult and make it into the death cult that it has become.

As to whether Wahhabism and so-called export of Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia has contributed to this culture of death and suicide bombing, I am a direct descendant of Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahab, who preached in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia a reform movement which fought against superstition and idolatry and so on and malpractices that had come about and accrued around the practice of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. And certain principles about his teachings also follow from the teachings of previous Muslims, scholars and thinkers -- the four great Sunni teachers of Islam.

And on principles like, for example, suicide: All Muslims stand against suicide, for whatever reason it may come about. And the religious authorities in the kingdom under the leadership of mufti of Saudi Arabia, have issued fatwas against suicide bombings, even before September 11th, when these activities were undertaken in Palestine and Israel. Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh issued a fatwa saying that suicide bombings are against the religion and should not be followed at all.

Asked why there's been such an explosion in suicide bombings? As it is not Islamic, why there has been this sharp increase in that.

Prince Turki said: I can tell you that this is part and parcel of the kind of cult philosophy that found residence in the political situation in our part of the world. Nothing justifies any terrorist act, whether through suicide bombing or through any other activity, but when you have people faced with desperation and a general absence of any justice or wherewithal -- whether it is in terms of normal standards of living, education and so on -- as you have seen happen in the occupied territories of Palestine, the people have turned to desperate measures.

But even in Palestine, if I may say, the al Qaeda cult as a cult has not found root. The suicide bombings in Palestine have taken a different tack from the al Qaeda tack, if you like. Hamas and the Jihad and others identify themselves differently from al Qaeda and they have suicide bombings, which they justify as being legitimate means of war under occupation. That is their justification for it. And that is -- when they started doing that, our mufti in Saudi Arabia declared publicly that that route is against the teachings of Islam.

So Wahhabi, I think, has taken on, if you like -- has become a kind of punching bag identified by governments and groups for the sake of an easier and simpler way of explaining things than it necessarily should be that way.

As I told you, on basic principles of theology, the Wahhabi teachings contradict 180 degrees the cult of bin Laden and the suicide bombings that take place, wherever they may be.

On democracy Prince Turki said even before President Bush's call for democracy and the elections in our part of the world -- and when the Saudi kingdom was established, Islamic principles dictated upon us the practice of a bai'a. Some of you probably know that word more than I do, but basically what it is a contract that the citizen enters into with the person that he chooses to be his leader for reciprocity in how they deal with each other. The citizen vows allegiance and obeying and hearing from the leader in return for the leader's responsibility to the citizen to protect and guarantee the rights of the citizen within the framework of Islamic Shari'ah. And that bai'a is entered into in a vote, a public vote, if you like.

When King Abdullah became king, he received in public in the official residence -- not the official working place of the king in Saudi Arabia -- the citizens' bai'a through handshake, that every citizen comes and shakes his hand and says the following words to him: I give you the bai'a in pursuit of the dictates of the Qur'an and Sunnah of the Prophet -- the Sunnah meaning the way of the prophet. And this bai'a is not exclusive to men. Even women are enjoined to do that bai'a. And the king received women in his home later on to receive their bai'a. And in the various provinces of Saudi Arabia, the governors in those provinces receive the bai'a in the name of the king for the citizens who cannot go to the capital and give the king directly their bai'a.

And I remember I was then ambassador in London -- in the embassy in London, and I was told in the embassy here in Washington, a bai'a book was opened for Saudi citizens to come and sign their names so that they can express their -- not just allegiance but their contractual arrangement with the new king. So as a process of elections, that has been the practice since the time of the successors of the prophet, 1,400 years ago.

I think where we as Muslims -- not just in the kingdom but in other Muslim countries -- have been lacking and have failed to do is in institutionalizing it and making it a process that is formal and institutionalized so that people know exactly what is expected of them, when they can expect it and so on.

So the issue of one man, one vote is not alien to the society in Saudi Arabia, nor do I imagine in any Muslim society, because it is part and parcel of the Muslim's makeup that he should practice the bai'a. If not, he would be committing a sin. And I mean that he and she.

The moderator: I think the differences in our society -- we get to decide who we profess our loyalty to, if you will, by going to the ballot box and choosing between one, two, three, four, as opposed to simply an expression of loyalty.

Prince Turki: But may I just continue on that point, because you make a very interesting point, Ms. House.

Three years ago in Davos, this issue came up, and I asked the panel moderator whether he thought the election of President Bush in the year 2000 was a legitimate election because the majority one man, one vote went to the other candidate, yet the Electoral College was the one that decided this issue in your society. And the answer that came back to me, which made sense after I thought about it a while, was that that is true, but the Electoral College was part and parcel of the government system that came about as a result of the consent of the people. And hence, that made it legitimate as a means of electing the president, in addition to the issue of one man, one vote.

And we in the kingdom, in our progress for the future, we will find our ways of broadening the concept of the consent of the people to be inclusive of all of the citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Doron Weber, Sloan Foundation: You were in charge of the General Intelligence Directorate for 25 years beginning in 1977. How early did you become aware of Osama bin Laden and what was your strategy in dealing with him?

Prince Turki: I met Osama bin Laden five times in my life as intelligence director. Mid-'80s to end of 1989 or beginning of 1990 was the last time I saw him. And when the withdrawal of Soviet troops in Afghanistan occurred, bin Laden and his supporters within Afghanistan -- and by the way, that's where al Qaeda was born. As I like to -- prefer to say, the al Qaeda was born in the hills of Afghanistan rather than in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. And they decided that they were going to form a group that will, in their view, protect Muslim interests throughout the world as they identified themselves as being the primary claimants to the credit of driving the Soviets out of Afghanistan.

And so, by 1990 when I last saw him at the beginning of that year, he had come to me with a proposition that he wants to bring his mujaheddin as he called them, to liberate the then-Marxist regime in south Yemen. And I advised him that that was not the right time to do it because there were other factors playing there politically and economically. South Yemen was being -- not a favorite word of mine -- weaned away from the Soviet Union at that time. So, he left and that was the last that I saw of him.

He then remained in the kingdom for another two years after that, sometimes going to mosques and preaching without taking permission to do so and being arrested for doing that and reprimanded and then let go.

And I think at the end of 1992 -- perhaps Mr. Rubin can correct me on that -- he asked for permission to leave Saudi Arabia. And he left and went to Afghanistan. And he went from there in -- end of 1993 he went to the Sudan, and that's when he began operating against the kingdom from the Sudan. He was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994. His financial assets were frozen at that time and even his personal family disowned him in public at that time.

By 1996, he moved from the Sudan to Afghanistan and it went on from there. So we were pretty much aware of bin Laden from the very beginning, if you like. Not perhaps so much in terms of how dangerous he could be, but as he grew and as his movement grew, people became more aware of his danger.

And the first terrorist act undertaken by bin Laden was against Saudi Arabia in 1995 when an explosives truck was exploded next to a training facility for the National Guard where I believe 11 American trainers were killed along with other nationalities.

Questioner: My question goes to Lebanon, of course. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. What are your thoughts on the outcome of the assassination and other assassination?

Prince Turki: Well, this is a very sad occasion for all of us. Those of us who had the privilege and honor to know Rafik Hariri know how much he meant not just to us as individuals but to a host of Lebanese and non-Lebanese individuals who received his generosity and his acts of kindness, whether in providing scholastic scholarships or simply meeting the medical needs of individuals and families, and sometimes even providing homes for people who didn't have homes. So we all mourn his death. And I think the greatest pity of all of this is that a man like Rafik Hariri is not going to be replaced by anybody. He was unique. And his loss is, therefore, that much more magnified than if you could have somebody who could be cloned, let's say, and brought to power.

What we are seeking, of course, with the world community is finality to his death -- who killed him and how that happened and meeting justice by bringing those people who killed him to court -- he and the other people who were assassinated in Lebanon. And that's why we have been in full support of the United Nations' efforts in that endeavor, and we hope that they will reach finality sooner rather than later.

Questioner: Allen Hyman, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Hamas has been supported, at least for their social services, by the kingdom for many years. Now that Hamas has achieved political power and continues to call for the destruction of Israel, a member of the United Nations, how will the kingdom use its influence to try to change Hamas' policy?

Prince Turki: One thing that everybody has to keep in mind is that the kingdom never supported any specific party in Palestine. Our support has always gone to the Palestinian people through United Nations institutions, through the World Bank, through the Arab League and through all of the international institutions that operate and have operated in Palestinian refugee camps and in territories occupied by Israel.

Our king visited Pakistan just recently and his visit coincided with the coming of the results of the elections in Palestine where Hamas appeared and came out as the winner in those elections.

In the joint communiqué that came out between King Abdullah and President Pervez Musharraf, both of them enjoined Hamas to do the following: first of all, that they must commit to the commitments of the Palestinian Authority, because the Palestinian Authority, it's raison d'etre, it's legitimacy derives from the Oslo Agreements with Israel.

Secondly, they enjoined Hamas to commit to the Arab peace plan, the Abdullah peace plan, which was the first plan that talked about a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel on an equitable basis. And thirdly, they enjoined Hamas to commit to the roadmap for peace, which was recognized by the world community as the means to achieve the two-state solution.

And at the same time, both of them enjoined the world community to recognize that the Palestinian people, through democratic elections, have chosen their representatives. And therefore, that process must takes its place. And I think we are still -- it would be premature now to judge what is going to happen because there is still no Hamas government in place. We are still -- the Palestinians are still under an interim government until a new government takes over.

My view is that Hamas will not give us anything, if you like, whether in commitments or otherwise, until they find out who is going to be their interlocutor after the Israeli elections, which will be coming at the end of next month. Then we can expect some movement on that issue, but the kingdom has already expressed its views on that to Hamas and to the world community.

Questioner: John Lamb, Sidley Austin.

Your Highness, I had the good fortune of spending a couple of years in your country in Riyadh in the early '80s. As somebody who is a practicing Catholic, I was able to find opportunity to go to mass at the American military compound in Riyadh, unlike a lot of the Filipino workers there.

And I was wondering if you see any time in the future where the hundreds of thousands of people of other faiths who are guest workers in your country will have an opportunity to worship discretely as they can in other places like Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, the Emirates. And Qatar also follows the principles of Mohammed Ibn Abdel Wahhab.

Prince Turki: Well, of course. I think this is an issue that has to be not just pursued by the kingdom but also explained in as much as possible so that people don't misunderstand where we come from.

As you know, the kingdom is the place of the two holy mosques, and as such, the issue of worship by others is ingrained in the teachings of the Qur'an and the practice of the prophet. So there is nothing in Saudi law or Saudi practice to infringe upon people worshipping, as you said, in their homes and in their privacy on that -- not just Christians, but Jews and any other followers of religion.

We have in the kingdom millions of Muslims -- have always posed to the question to ourselves -- we believe in all of the prophets, Mohammed being the last one. We revere from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to David, Solomon, you name it, Jesus, Jonah, Jacob. All the prophets of the Old Testament and the New Testament, we consider them to be our prophets. And we also accept that the divine revelations to these prophets, the Torah and the Bible are our books, along with the Qur'an. And our question to Christians and Jews is that why don't you reciprocate and believe in our prophet as we believe in your prophets? Why don't you accept our Qur'an as your book as we accept your Bible in its entirety, whether Old Testament or New Testament?

And so, the balance here is whether the individual practices of certain people in the kingdom who go and break into homes and confiscate Bibles and prevent people from worship almost in a manner that is -- not almost: It is in a manner contrary to the practice of the prophet himself. And that is something for our legal authorities to deal with these people.

And I know many of you here will say yes, but some of these people are officials of Saudi Arabia. And I say yes. This is one of the banes that we have to carry with us that in our dealing with our guests who live in the kingdom, there are among us in our society those who take, if you like, these unacceptable actions against a practice that the prophet himself allowed in his own mosque. And when he was visited by a group of Christians from the south of Arabia in that time, he allowed them to pray in his own mosque. So that is the balance that we have to deal with. And as I told you, as we progress and go forward, King Abdullah has expressed his view publicly on that matter.

In convening the extraordinary summit meeting of Muslim countries just last December, one of the main topics there was on this issue of how to deal with the others, the non-Muslims -- not just in our societies but even for Muslims who live in societies that are not Islamic. Along with that was an issue that was discussed at that conference, which was the issue of Islamaphobia, as we've seen some ramifications of that in the recent controversy over the cartoons that depicted the prophet -- peace be upon him -- in unacceptable and really terrible ways.

So you're right, and we have that lacking in our kingdom and we have to address it. And addressing it in front of an audience like this in this manner, I think, allows me as ambassador of Saudi Arabia to your country to explain some of the difficulties that we have and some of the problems as a society that we have.

On the other hand Prince Turki Al-Faisal attended a dinner hosted in his honor by Saudi Ambassador to the UN Fawzi Shobokshi in New York. The dinner was also attended by ambassadors, diplomats, UN officials and distinguished UN guests.

Prince Turki Al-Faisal also gave an address on Saudi Arabia in the global community at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 16, 2006.

Following is the speech:

Ladies and Gentlemen: Truly, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. It is an honor to be visiting MIT, one of the world's most innovative and prestigious academic institutions. Many Saudis are alumni of this school.

The type of education one obtains here the type that fosters critical thinking has always been important to me and my family. My father, the late King Faisal, even sent my brothers and me to be schooled in the US from the time we were teenagers, so we could be exposed to American learning. He always believed that education is the greatest agent for change and progress. His commitment to this was unwavering.

Shortly after his passing, about 30 years ago, my brothers and I founded the King Faisal Foundation to continue his legacy in philanthropy and education. The foundation's pursuit of these ideals continues today with its most significant program currently coming to fruition. Along with several international partners, we are in the process of establishing the first truly private, non-profit Saudi university in science and technology. Al-Faisal University, as it is known, was formally chartered in 2004, and will open in 2007.

This will be nothing less than a world-class, multi-national university to educate the next generation of Saudi leaders. The university will have an American curriculum in engineering, science, medicine and business. We are even reaching out to top-tier academic partners in the US including schools like MIT and Johns Hopkins University school of medicine to help us reach the level of excellence for which the university was founded.

Think of the contrast: Just 60 years ago Saudi Arabia had less than ten schools. Forty years ago, we only had one university. Now the Kingdom has 11 public universities, some 25,000 schools, and a large number of colleges and technical institutions. Our public system provides every Saudi with free education, books and health services. We have come very far in a short time.

More than 5 million students are currently enrolled in the Saudi educational system, which boasts a student to teacher ratio of 12.5 to 1 one of the lowest in the world. Over 25 percent of our annual budget goes toward education and vocational training. And more than half of our college-level and graduate students are women.

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is imperative we prepare our citizens for life and work in a modern, global economy. And as you well know, education is critical to success.

While we recognize that oil is a finite resource, we know our best and infinite resource is our people, and in order to diversify our economy, we need to educate and train our youth in new areas where they can develop, grow and innovate.

You may have read recently that the Saudi government is promoting a scholarship program to send Saudi students to attend colleges and universities abroad. In the first phase, the Kingdom has offered 10,000 students full four-year scholarships. Most of them will come to the US.

In fact, there are already 192 Saudi students currently enrolled in the program who will be coming to Massachusetts for their education.

The Saudi people have a lot to offer the world community. Through improved education and exposure to the world at large, we hope to facilitate continued, mutually beneficial international relations.

As you are aware, Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, one of the world's three monotheistic religions, and the site of Islam's Two Holy Mosques. Five times a day, more than one billion Muslims turn in the direction of Makkah in prayer. Each year, millions of Muslims come from all over the world for spiritual rejuvenation and fulfillment of their religious duty as they did just last month. This places great responsibility on the Kingdom.

This is why last December, leaders and heads of state from 57 Arab and Islamic nations came together in Makkah, Saudi Arabia to answer a call by King Abdullah. The third extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was convened to address the problems in the Muslim world, and offer solutions for a better future.

An open and honest dialogue ensued, and specific steps were decided on, including combating terrorism and extremism, promoting academic excellence, implementing political and economic reforms, and opening up economic systems to enhance economic growth and to create jobs.

The conference concluded with the approval of a ten-year strategic plan for reforms, which is marked by moderation, modernization, and tolerance. The extremist element that seeks to pervert our faith is an undeniable evil, and we intend to take back our religion, which has been marred by these malevolent cults.

As King Abdullah has affirmed, "We must put our Islamic house in order."

At one time, Islam was at the forefront of global civilization, providing significant contributions to humanity in fields such as astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, medicine and architecture. Indeed, many of the precepts of architecture and mathematics, including the very numbers themselves which are studied here at MIT, are products of Islamic innovation. We again intend to regain a position from which we can make positive contributions to the global community.

We seek to contribute in other areas as well, such as working towards the eradication of destitution and poverty. The OIC plans to take practical steps to achieve scientific and technological advancement, with a view to supporting sustainable economic development.

The OIC member states also recognize a need to establish an independent permanent body to promote human rights. This includes preparation of an Islamic charter on human rights in accordance with the provisions of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. The charter would also interact with the United Nations and other relevant international bodies. In addition, the OIC aims to promote women's rights and education and has welcomed Turkey's offer to host the first OIC women's conference.

The outcomes of this OIC conference represent a new level of cooperation in the Islamic world. To remain helpful to our neighbors and to be able to make contributions in this world, we recognize that our skills and understanding must be kept current.

As the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who lived part of his life here in Cambridge, said: "The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order."

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a characteristic of the Saudi people to be deliberate and careful in our actions. Our Bedouin heritage dictates that our plans should be studied and meaningful, as there is little room for rash behavior in the desert. We have learned, over the centuries, that in order to survive in the desert, we must be able to differentiate between a mirage and reality.

Our society today operates in a similar way, and the pursuit of successful and lasting change needs to be as considerate of tradition as it is of the future. It must be deliberate to be real.

Last month, the Mayor of Riyadh Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Miqren chaired the first meeting of the municipal council of the city of Riyadh. This is the first of the 178 municipal councils throughout the Kingdom to which members were elected last spring.

Formation of these councils and the corresponding elections represent an important step in the Kingdom's ongoing effort to promote greater participation by Saudi citizens in the decision-making process.

Even more recently, Saudi citizen Nadia Bakhurji won a seat on the new 10-member board of the newly formed Saudi Engineers' Council. She hopes to increase membership and visibility of women, and to create a database of all female engineers, designers and architects.

Women now have also been elected onto the boards of other professional organizations, including the Saudi Journalists' Association and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. These women, who have the support of their peers and communities, are reaching new levels; each year, we witness an increasing number of female graduates from Saudi schools and colleges and that number has been consistently greater than the number of male graduates.

These are all universally positive developments.

Saudi Arabia looks to continue this progress. We understand that we live in a global community and our neighbors' peace, stability, and prosperity is as important as our own.

Ladies and Gentlemen: We are at a time of economic expansion in many places throughout the world, and what enables this growth is energy, specifically oil.

In recent years, the price of oil has seen a marked increase, which has occurred for a number of reasons from economic growth in Asia, to speculation in the oil markets, to a lack of global refining and shipping capacity.

In the long run, both high and low prices have negative effects on the market. Erratic swings in prices create economic dislocations and make long-term planning difficult. High oil prices hurt oil importing countries in the short-term by slowing economic growth. They also hurt oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia in the long-term by slowing down demand for oil and setting the stage for a drastic drop in price.

Saudi Arabia has been working with its partners, both producers and consumers, to seek ways to better ensure market stability. Several years ago, the Kingdom took the initiative to establish the consumer-producer dialogue to improve the exchange of information on energy supply and demand. It now has a permanent secretariat headquartered in Riyadh.

The US and Saudi Arabia, as the world's largest importer and exporter of oil, play major roles in the global oil markets, and cooperation between the two countries is essential to market stability. Officials in both countries regularly meet and exchange information, including at the highest level. In April of last year, then-crown prince, now King Abdullah visited President Bush at his ranch in Crawford. Oil, as you can imagine, was a major topic of discussion.

Secretary Bodman visited Saudi Arabia last November to tour Aramco's facilities and to attend the inauguration of the consumer-producer dialogue's International Energy Forum secretariat. The meeting also launched the Joint Oil Data Initiative. This initiative, supported by both our nations, is intended to enhance the transparency of world oil markets by incorporating oil-related data from more than 90 countries. It will also help promote better information sharing between producers and consumers to help plan for the future.

As you can see, throughout this period of escalated prices, there has been a pattern of growing cooperation and coordination between the US and Saudi Arabia.

We have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship when it comes to oil. And although the Kingdom currently supplies only 15% of the US' oil imports, we continue to work together to seek stability in the global oil market.

Saudi Arabia encourages all nations to develop and adopt viable energy policies. We want to ensure that the global economy is adequately supplied with energy to grow sufficiently, and new energy strategies, including the development of alternative sources, will be needed in the long run to meet the world's demand for energy.

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia will continue to supply as much oil as the world market demands. Because, even as the world's largest producer and exporter of oil and as a strategic partner of the US in many areas, including trade and the war on terrorism Saudi Arabia is still only one thing: a nation of people who want a secure and prosperous future for their children.

Thank you, and may God's peace be upon you.

Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal talked about the Saudi-US partnership and global challenges the two nations face in remarks at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government February 15.

Saudi Arabia and the US have had a long, successful partnership for more than 60 years, and it continues to strengthen as the two nations work together to meet global challenges, Prince Turki said.

Saudi Arabia and the US are working together to combat one of the most important challenges faced today: the global threat of terrorism, Prince Turki said, noting a joint Saudi-US task force to share information, resources and technology that is a model of international cooperation. The ambassador also pointed out that the Kingdom has enacted a three-pronged approach to combat terrorism by relentlessly pursuing the terrorists, cracking down on terrorist financing and changing the mindset that supports terrorism.

"Our message is clear: Intolerance, violence and extremism are not a part of our Islamic faith of Saudi culture and traditions," he said.

In addition to terrorism, the international community must work together to create stability and foster peace in the Middle East. In particular, Prince Turki noted the need to find a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to bring stability to Iraq.

Prince Turki also dispelled several myths about Saudi Arabia that have become prevalent in the West in the last few years.

First, he dispelled the myth that Saudi Arabia exports a type of extremism known as Wahhabism. He noted that many in the West misunderstand what Wahhabism is, and pointed out that it does not advocate the killing of innocents or acts of suicide. The faith has been perverted by individuals like Osama bin Laden to justify their acts, similar to the way David Koresh or Jim Jones perverted Christianity.

He also debunked the myths that immediately after the September 11 attacks, flights with Saudis left the US while American airspace was still closed, and that the Saudi government funded acts of terrorism. In both cases, he referred to the 9/11 Commission report, which found both of these myths to be untrue.

Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal met with Saudi students on scholarship in the United States at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Also in attendance was the Saudi cultural attaché to Washington, Dr Mazyed Al-Mazyed.