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Riyadh: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal has said the historic relations between Muslims and Christians can be traced back to an era before 1450.
Prince Saud said such a civilisation prospered in the Andalus where the Western and Islamic civilisation intermingled in a remarkable way.
He was speaking yesterday at a symposium on the historic links between Europe and the Arab World since 1450. The three-day event is being organised by the Riyadh-based King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in collaboration with the German embassy in Riyadh.
Prince Saud described the year 1450 as "a turning point in the European-Arab communication due to the conjunction of trade routes between Central Asia and the Mediterranean including Bilad Al Sham (Syria with its present borders, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan) and Egypt which is the heart of the world."
The Saudi foreign minister underlined the importance of removing barriers and put aside stereotypes that each party has about the other.
Prince Saud comments came ahead of the 17th meeting of the GCC-EU Joint Ministerial Council due to be opened later today in Riyadh.
He said the ideal way to remove these barriers is to promote communication and link between the two sides. However, he added that the removal of barriers does not necessarily mean reaching a stage of full harmony in vision and attitude.
"What is required is to work for reaching the objective of integrity between us which will grant us the opportunity of accepting each other and admitting the existing differences and peculiarity of each side," Prince Saud noted.
For his part Prince Turki Al Faisal, chairman of the board of King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, said the seminar is the result of the awareness of the leaders of European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of the importance of communication between civilisations.
He said if communities isolated themselves from the outside world, they deprive themselves from positively involving with the changes surrounding them.
Several papers will be presented in the symposium. The papers, prepared by Arab and European experts, tackle topics pertaining to Arab-Europe relations; the importance of exchange understanding between Europe and the Islamic world, the image of GCC people in the European media.
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