Chavez crosses Saudi law at OPEC opening
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| Published on Monday, November 19, 2007 |
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RIYADH (AFP): Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke Saudi Arabia's strict religious laws during an opening address at an OPEC summit on Saturday by making a sign of the cross at the start of his speech.
The Catholic leftwing president, who issued a warning about rocketing oil prices and encouraged OPEC to become actively involved in foreign policy, began his speech with the ritualistic Christian hand movement.
He went on to make two references to Christ at a ceremony attended by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah -- the custodian of Islam's holiest sites -- and other leaders from the 12-member oil exporters' group.
Under Saudi law, the act of practising a religion other than Islam in public and non-Islamic religious symbols are forbidden.
The ultra-conservative kingdom enforces a strict form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism and also forbids unrelated men and women from associating with each other, bans women from driving and requires them to cover head-to-toe in public.
Just before Chavez spoke -- he opened the ceremony because he was the host of the last OPEC summit in Caracas in 2000 -- verses of the Koran were read to the assembled delegates.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries counts Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as members. |
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