Saudi Gazette report

NEW YORK — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has condemned all terrorist acts and attacks on religious sites and places of worship, affirming its support for the United Nations Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said Friday.

This came during the Kingdom's speech at the high-level meeting called by the United Nations Secretary General on the occasion of the launch of the plan, which was delivered by the Kingdom’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Khalid Bin Muhammad Manzalawi here.

Dr. Manzalawi expressed thanks to the UN Secretary General and the Representative of the Alliance of Cultures for launching the UN Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites.

This comes at a sensitive time when the world is witnessing an increase in attacks on religious sites and the desecration of such holy places.

Such acts are deemed terrorist acts necessitating “of us” a serious stand to repulse these practices and acts that feed terrorism, spread ideas of hate and practice of injustice and clash of civilizations.

Dr. Manzalawi said the UN Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites comes as a positive step to enhance noble values and extend bridges of love and peace, counter every person who violates the inviolability of holy places and providing security to places of worship.

He stressed that the Kingdom’s participation comes as a support for the plan of action due to the great experience the Kingdom has accrued in protecting religious sites and disseminating the culture of peace and tolerance. Hence, the Kingdom has a pioneering experience in this field.

Dr. Manzalawi said: “Allah Almighty has honored the Kingdom — leadership and people — to serve the Two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madinah, among the holiest places in the world — as the Kingdom receives millions of pilgrims and Umrah performers coming from different parts of the world. They gather at the same place and time throughout the year.”

This has placed the Kingdom as the pioneering country in protecting religious sites and huge crowd management in a small area at the same time, especially since these crowds speak different languages, come from different cultures and have different behaviors, he said.

Dr. Manzalawi added: “The difference between nations — in their faiths, cultures, natures, way of thinking — is something destined by Allah Almighty. It is important to deal with these differences with logic and wisdom to achieve our goals to reach peace for humanity and spread the culture of tolerance and peace between different nations and peoples.”

The Kingdom's speech stressed that the religious and cultural diversity among societies and peoples never justifies a clash, but requires action to develop dialogue and build peace.