Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nov 23, 2007 / 09:08 am
The Catholic Bishop of Arabia has published an article examining the call to dialogue made by 138 Muslim scholars in an open letter to Christian leaders worldwide.
Swiss-born Bishop Paul Hinder, based in Abu Dhabi, has responsibility for Catholics in the entire Arabian Peninsula. He has called for more freedom and security for minority Christians in Saudi Arabia and more freedom for foreign priests to enter the country to administer to them.
There are about 1.2 million Christians in Saudi Arabia, most of them Catholic Filipino migrant workers.
Bishop Hinder wrote the article responding to the Muslims’ letter in Oasis, a Venice-based multilingual magazine dedicated to Catholic-Muslim dialogue. His article examined several points the Muslim scholars raised.