Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz on Saturday welcomed participants of the Counter-terrorism International Conference and said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the cradle of Islam which advocates "equality and friendship."
In his inaugural address, Crown Prince Abdullah pointed out that Islam is the religion of wisdom, adding that false slogans raised by "deviant groups" run counter to the teachings of Islam. "Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him) is the prophet of mercy, and Islam is the religion of mercy, and it is impossible to link Islam with terrorism."
"Terrorism does not belong to a certain religion or system, and it is carried out by evil and spiteful persons who are fond of killing and destruction," the Crown Prince noted. "The conference embodies the determination of the international community on confronting criminal gangs in all places, as well as combating false ideas, and facing the extremist rhetoric with moderation and tolerance."
Crown Prince Abdullah noted that the terrorist network is closely linked to three criminal international networks, namely the networks of arms smuggling, drug smuggling and money laundering. "It will be difficult to attain victory in our battle against terrorism unless we decisively confront these three criminal networks," he said.
Later, Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Interior Minister and head of the anti-terrorism conference, chaired Saturday in Riyadh the first general session of the conference.
In his address, the minister explained that during the last two years, Saudi Arabia witnessed 22 terrorist acts including bombings, attacks and hijacks. According to SPA, he added that these criminal acts led to the killing of 90 people and injury of 507. Ninety security men were killed and 213 security men were injured because of these acts.
He noted that of the "deviant group," 92 people were killed and 17 were injured and damage exceeded SR1 billion as a result of these acts. The minister stated that security efforts aborted 52 terrorist acts.
Speeches by participating delegations were delivered afterwards.
