Word: saudi
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...bearing neither bells nor visible crosses - has been hailed as a welcome step forward in relations between Catholicism and Islam. But an even more dramatic development is under discussion just across the border: The Vatican has confirmed that it is negotiating for permission to build the first church in Saudi Arabia...
...Presiding over the cradle of Islam and home to its holiest sites, the Saudi monarchy has long banned the open worship of other faiths, even as the number of Catholics resident in Saudi Arabia has risen to 800,000 thanks to an influx of immigrant workers from places like the Philippines and India. Mosques are the only houses of prayer in a country where the strict Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam dominates. But Archbishop Paul-Mounged El-Hachem, the papal envoy to the smaller countries on the Arabian peninsula, such as Kuwait and Qatar, has confirmed that talks are under...
...positive interfaith rapport. Under Benedict, the Catholic hierarchy has stepped up calls from its Muslim counterparts for "reciprocity," demanding that the same religious freedom enjoyed by Muslims in the West should be granted to Christian minorities in the Islamic world. They note that Europe's biggest mosque, built with Saudi funds, was opened in 1995 in Rome, just across the river from the Vatican...
...While Christians in those areas trace their roots to the earliest centuries of the faith, the Catholics in Saudi Arabia are mostly migrant workers. And the restrictions on any outward manifestation of their religious beliefs have been particularly severe. The celebration of non-Muslim holidays is forbidden, as is the wearing of crucifixes and other religious symbols...
...Junaid M. Munir, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2001, was a litigation associate and a judicial clerk before he joined the United States Foreign Service in 2004. Munir was first posted at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Two weeks after his arrival, al-Qaida gunmen attacked the consulate, killing five staff members. Munir said the attack galvanized his commitment to serve the U.S. overseas. In 2006, Munir transferred to Paris to head up U.S. outreach to French Muslims. But Munir said he wanted to contribute where the need was greatest, and he signed...