MAKKAH, 11 September 2005 — More than 80 Islamic scholars and intellectuals considered far-ranging ideas, from democratic empowerment of Muslim peoples as the best defense against extremism to a massive modernization effort to put the nations on an even technological footing with the West, during the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) forum yesterday. The scholars said a consensus was emerging on some key issues in the Muslim world.

“The scholars attending the key forum have spoken in unison about the need to empower the Muslim people through democratic process,” said Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of Pakistan’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the conference, Mushahid Hussain said the OIC needs to be strengthened to make a qualitative difference in the lives of the Muslim people. There was a general sense of frustration among the masses at the inadequacy of the Muslim nations to rise to the challenges facing the community at large, he said.

Mushahid Hussain said the scholars, who were busy brainstorming at the Royal Guest Palace for the second day of the three-day conference, also were unanimous about the need to engage other countries in a dialogue to end conflict. “All of us at the forum feel that there should be no clash with countries; rather dialogue should be promoted to end conflicts,” Mushahid Hussain said.

Indian scholar M.J. Akbar said Islam consciously advocates democratic ideas like social justice, equality and charity as fundamental principles. “Muslim scholars have noted consistently that Islam is a democratic doctrine,” he said. “In 1940, one of the great Indian Muslim thinkers and freedom-fighters, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, had argued that among Islam’s greatest contributions to India was the gift of democratic ideas,” Akbar said.

“Islam and Muslim nations, particularly those with energy resources, are being subjected to an intellectual assault, based on a carefully constructed dialectic, disseminated through mass media, that must be challenged by facts and reason. We lose the argument when we become either submissive-defensive, or aggressive-hysterical,” Akbar said. “There is a lot of space in-between.”

He said every Muslim nation must have an inclusive polity in which traditional systems leave sufficient space for contemporary demands. “Democracy may be a new idea, but it is the best one we have. The test of a democracy is the vulnerability of a government. We are vulnerable because, in a classic symptom of despair, the Muslim voice is being taken over by deviants. Why? Muslim governments must look into their hearts and ask whether they are doing enough to end internal and external injustice,” added Akbar.

OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had on Friday emphasized the need for discussions among the Muslim intelligentsia to come up with a new blueprint to raise the morale of the Ummah.

In a written speech circulated among the delegates yesterday, Ihsanoglu reviewed the dysfunction in the capacities and potentials of the Islamic world, tracing them back to the end of the 18th century. He stressed that Islamic states can correct these flaws and bridge the gap that separates them from the advanced states through the building of a developed scientific and technological base, a strong economy and a social development that is in harmony with modern civilization.

Earlier during the opening session, the delegates listened to the speech of Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, which was delivered on his behalf by Dr. Nizar Obaid Madani, the minister of state for foreign affairs. Dr. Madani hoped that the holiness of Makkah would have a positive impact in sharpening the participants’ thoughts and enlightening their paths during their deliberations and exchanges, so as to come out with applicable visions and actions, which will be submitted to the leaders of the Muslim states at their extraordinary summit meeting due to take place by the end of this year.