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Revision as of 00:31, 26 September 2003 by Ostritch (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He also serves as First Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the Saudi National Guard. Prince Abdullah is one of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud, the former regent of Saudi Arabia and brother of Saudi Arabia's current regent, King Fahd. Abdullah currently acts as the de-facto regent of Saudi Arabia due to the serious and incapacitating illness of King Fahd.
Abdullah was born in Riyadh in 1924 and received his early education within the Royal Court from religious authorities and intellectuals. He was given the position of Commander of the Saudi National Guard in 1963, and the position of First Deputy Prime Minister in June 1982.
Prince Abdullah has established two libraries in the Muslim world, one in Riyadh (the King Abdulaziz Library) and another in Casablanca, Morocco.
In October 1976, as Abdullah was being groomed for greater responsibility in Riyadh, he was sent to the United States to meet with then-President Gerald Ford. He again travelled to America in October 1987, meeting then-President George H. W. Bush. In September of 1998, Abdullah made a state visit to America to meet in Washington, DC with then-President Bill Clinton. He returned again in September of 2000 to attend millenium celebrations at the United Nations in New York, New York.
Since then Abdullah has visited America many times, and there are reports that the Bush family, including President George W. Bush consider Abdullah to be a great friend — both of America and the Bush family.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, as criticism of Saudi Arabia mounted, Abdullah said "The vicious campaign being waged against the kingdom in the Western media is nothing but the manifestation of a deep-rooted hatred directed against the course of Islam. Commitment to Islam and the homeland is not up for debate."
Abdullah is considered by many in the West to be a relatively moderate ruler, despite the fact that Saudi Arabian schools teach anti-Semitism and the fact that Saudi Arabia's Royal Family funds madrassahs around the world that offer less than tolerant lessons regarding the West. Saudi Arabia was also a major backer of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
On the second anniversary of the September 11 attack on the United States, the prince wrote a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, which ended with:
- "God Almighty, in His wisdom, tests the faithful by allowing such calamities to happen. But He, in His mercy, also provides us with the will and determination, generated by faith, to enable us to transform such tragedies into great achievements, and crises that seem debilitating are transformed into opportunities for the advancement of humanity. I only hope that, with your cooperation and leadership, a new world will emerge out of the rubble of the World Trade Center: a world that is blessed by the virtues of freedom, peace, prosperity and harmony."
In October of 2002, Abdullah is said by Israeli intelligence to have met with Khaled Mashal, a leader of the violent Hamas organization, which is engaged in a bloody, terroristic struggle with the state of Israel. The meeting supposedly took place during the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Riyadh.