ASSOCIATED PRESS Pope Francis, who is traveling to the Arabian Peninsula on Sunday, delivers a speech at the Vatican on Jan. 30, 2019. VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is seeking to turn a page in Christian-Muslim relations while also ministering to a unique, thriving island of Catholicism as he embarks on the first-ever papal trip to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. It will be the fifth meeting between Francis and el-Tayeb, evidence that Al-Azhar's freeze in relations with the Holy See sparked by Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 comments linking Islam to violence has thoroughly thawed. Vaidyanathan, who converted from Hinduism to Catholicism while living in Dubai, said the Emirates' religious tolerance is commendable given the trends of the region. He dodged a question about whether Francis would raise Yemen's yearslong war in his private talks with the sheikh.

Source: Huffington Post February 03, 2019 11:15 UTC