Saudi Arabia has officially opened the doors to a controversial new "interreligious and intercultural dialogue center" in the Austrian capital of Vienna, the Europe News website reports today (November 28, 2012).
The King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue was inaugurated during an elaborate ceremony at the Hofburg Palace in downtown Vienna on November 26. More than 650 high-profile guests from around the world attended the event, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at the foreign ministers of the center's three founding states -- Austria, Spain, and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis say the purpose of the multi-million-dollar institution -- which will be headquartered at the Palais Sturany in the heart of Vienna and will have the status of an international organization -- is to "foster dialogue" between the world's major religions in order to "prevent conflict."
Critics, however, emphasize that the center is really an attempt by Saudi Arabia to establish a permanent "propaganda center" in central Europe from which to spread the conservative Wahhabi sect of Islam. Moreover, the opening ceremony was accompanied by many angry protesters, who said that the Austrian government had "bowed the knee" to Saudi Arabia, and that the center was "a shame for Austria."
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