RIYADH, March 25: Prince Charles called for tolerance and flexibility in matters of faith during a visit on Saturday to a university in Saudi Arabia considered by the West to be a nursery of militancy.

Addressing Saudi scholars and officials at Riyadh’s Imam Muhammad ibn Saud University, Prince Charles argued against a ‘rigid interpretation’ of religious texts and said other ‘children of Abraham’ — Jews and Christians — had much to learn from Islamic teachings.

“What is so distinctive of the great ages of faith surely was that they understood, as well as sacred texts ... the meaning of God’s word for all time and its meaning for this time,” Prince Charles said.

“I feel, and you must forgive I’m no scholar ... it was Islam’s greatness to understand this in its full depth and challenge. This is what you ... can give not only to Islam but by example to all the other children of Abraham.”

Observers here felt that the university high-ups had invited the prince as part of a campaign to improve the institution’s image.

Graduates of the university work in government departments, courts, mosques and in the religious police force, which is entrusted with enforcing a Shariat-based public order. Only men can study or teach at the university.

Many students at the Riyadh university hailed the prince’s visit. “It will help change wrong ideas about the university and Saudi Arabia, accused of terrorism,” Abdulaziz al Aoufi, 20, said.

Asked to comment on Prince Charles’s call for a flexible interpretation of Islamic texts, student Maher al Sehili said: “Charles and the West don’t understand the true Islam. We are the ones that suffer prejudice, look at Iraq and Palestine.”

Another student shouted: “There’s nothing to change. Haven’t they read the holy Quran: ‘You have your religion and I have mine,’” he said, citing a Quranic verse.

Abdulaziz al Jaaidi agreed. “Islam can adapt to any era and any place, but there are no two interpretations of its sacred texts,” he said.