The upcoming meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah comes at a time when it is arguable that the Muslim world has never faced so many serious and dangerous challenges.

Unfairly dismissed as a talking shop, it must be hoped that the OIC will use the depth and range of its discussions over the two days from June 18, to present a clear message to the non-Muslim world as to Islam’s fundamentally moderate stance and opinions. For instance, the horror and disgust that Muslims feel at the depraved crimes of the likes of Boko Haram in Nigeria is no different from any other person in the world. Indeed it is actually the greater because these demented terrorists claim blasphemously to be acting in the name of Islam.

In this regard, OIC Secretary-General Iyad Madani will report on his recent visit to Nigeria where he saw for himself the atrocities that have been committed by these terrorists and took the opportunity to condemn their crimes in no uncertain terms. This, the 41st session of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers will be the first to which Madani, a Saudi, will be reporting. Another African trouble of equal concern for the Council will be the situation in the Central African Republic where the Muslim community had been subject to murderous attacks clearly aimed at a form of ethnic cleansing.

Brutal extremism, often sponsored by outside forces, feeds upon poverty and social deprivation. It has always been a key platform of the OIC that it is only through education and improved economic opportunity that this fertile ground will be denied to the men of violence. While there can be no doubt that extremist assaults must be answered vigorously by the authorities, it is also a given that the root causes that extremists exploit so wickedly have to be addressed. Much coordinated work in schools and in the creation of jobs has been done by Muslim countries through the OIC and the Kingdom has been to the fore in its financial and physical support for many of these projects. Unfortunately, as a result of political breakdown in states such as Somalia, Iraq and Syria, the forces of evil continue to find the territorial space and opportunity to peddle their bigotry and pursue their terrorist evil.

In the course of the Jeddah gathering there will be break-out meeting of the OIC’s four contact groups, charged with monitoring and assessing the situation in Kashmir, Somalia, Mali and among the Rohingya community in Burma. In each of these extremely difficult and challenging scenarios, the OIC sees its role as providing the wise analysis coupled with a readiness to provide diplomatic initiatives or support toward the discovery of an acceptable and just resolution. Indeed, the search for a just resolution is built into the very foundations of the OIC which was originally set up in 1969 with a view to protect the interests of the Palestinian people and to sponsor an end to their agony of Israeli occupation and repression.

It is certain that the meeting will concern itself with the crucially important reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas to form a Palestinian unity government. That Hamas under its leader Khaled Mishaal and Fatah led by President Mahmoud Abbas are prepared at last to work together, ought to be opening the door to real peace talks with the Israelis, sponsored by the international community. However Israel, conveniently ignoring its own past terrorist credentials, has refused to have any dealings with Hamas. Even Washington has expressed mild disappointment at the intransigence of Israel Premier Benjamin Netanyahu. It is a matter of worldwide concern that in defiance of international law and the United Nations, Israel continues to build illegal settlements in the West Bank and is pressing on with its blatant campaign to erase the Muslim and Arab character of occupied East Jerusalem.

The perennial problem facing the Arab and wider Muslim Ummah is how to convince the rest of the world of the blatant injustice and wickedness of Israel’s unflinching persecution of the Palestinian people. With US flying top-cover, Israel too often wins out in the publicity war to justify its illegal behavior. It is one of the important tasks of the OIC to continue to present the real facts behind the Palestinian tragedy, to both the citizens and the governments of a watching world. And diplomacy is not just about quiet words. A firm and even angry OIC statement on the grave injustices in Palestine would not be out of place.