Saudi anti-extremism center hosts visiting French cardinal

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's anti-extremism Etidal center hosted French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran yesterday, authorities said, a rare visit as the crown prince pushes for inter-religious exchange in the ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom.

Tauran, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, arrived on Friday in a historic visit to the kingdom which hosts Islam's holiest sites.

Riyadh-based Etidal, the Arabic acronym for the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, discussed with the cardinal its use of media and technology to "disrupt extremist recruitment and promote tolerance", a government statement said.

"I think we have two enemies: extremism and ignorance," Tauran was quoted as saying in the statement, while lauding the centre that was established in 2017.

"I don't believe in the clash of civilization but rather in the clash of ignorance. Most of the time people react because they don't know who you are or who they are."

Tauran, seen as an energetic promoter of dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Islam, also met Saudi King Salman in the capital on Wednesday, state media reported.

Saudi leaders have courted a flurry of representatives of various Christian traditions in recent months.