Pope Benedict XVI welcomed Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Tuesday in Vatican for a session of talks among the two. This is a historical event as no Saudi King has ever visited the papal state so far.

The focus of the discussions will most certainly be the relations between Christians and Muslims and the issue of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, more precisely, its absence it the middle-eastern kingdom.

Pope Benedict has constantly criticized Saudi Arabia’s lack of religious freedom. In the Arab Kingdom any form of religious expression that is non-Muslim is strictly prohibited.

The people who suffer because these measures are the foreign workers, most of them form Asia. There were reported many arrests of individuals who offended the Muslim religion by carrying a Christian Bible or holding a group prayer session, for example. Even if the prayer sessions take place in a non-public room such as one’s private home, the Saudi authorities disagree.

This meeting follows the letter sent to Pope Benedict a few weeks ago and signed by 138 Muslim clerics and intellectuals. Through it, they were urging the pope as well as the rest of the Christian leaders to greater understanding and respect between Muslims and Christians.

With the prayer sessions considered offensive, the problem of building a church or any building destined for worshiping any other God then Allah is out of the question. Saudi Arabia is the home of Islam's holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, for which the Saudi king holds the title Custodian of the Holy Sites.

Mecca is the most- revered city by Muslims. The reason is the fact that it contains the holiest site of Islam - the Masjid al-Haram – and every Muslim must undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca during the week of the Hajj at least once in his life if he is physically and financially able to do so. People of other faiths are forbidden from entering the city.

Medina, on the other hand, is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of Mohamed, Islam’s prophet.

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict raised tensions between His Holiness and the Islam and drew numerous Muslim protests after a speech held in his native Germany. Then, His Holiness referred to Islam as a religion of violence, and to Mohamed as a prophet that brought only war and conflict in the region.

The tensions were somewhat quelled as the pontiff said his words had been misinterpreted.