The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is an intergovernmental organization grouping fifty-seven states. These states decided to pool their resources together, combine their efforts and speak with one voice to safeguard the interest and ensure the progress and well-being of their peoples and those of other Muslims the world over.
The OIC was established in Rabat, Morocco on Sept. 25, 1969. The purpose of the OIC is to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among Islamic states in the political, economic, cultural, scientific and social fields. Thus far ten Islamic Summit Conferences and thirty-three Islamic Conferences of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) have been held. The tenth Islamic summit elected Malaysia as the current chairman of the organization.
The organization’s home on the Net is at www.oic-oci.org. The website contains information on all the OIC’s activities. Of particular interest is an online newsletter and links to all specialist and subsidiary institutions associated with the organization.
Today, the foreign ministers of the OIC member states will be holding the 34th ICFM session in Islamabad, under the title of “Session of Peace, Progress and Harmony.” During the meeting OIC Secretary-General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu will review the progress achieved in the implementation of the OIC Ten-Year Program of Action adopted by the Third Extraordinary Islamic Summit held in Makkah.
One of the items high on the agenda of the conference will be that of the organization’s draft revised charter which has been extensively discussed by an open-ended governmental group of experts over two meetings held at the organization’s headquarters in Jeddah, the second of which concluded last week. Among the other issues to be discussed will, for the first time, be a session on the various aspects of the phenomenon of Islamophobia. The ministers will also consider strategies to foster mutual understanding and dialogue between the Islamic world and the West, and a group of technical experts will present the five proposed criteria for selecting 20 universities from the OIC region to be elevated to the rank of the Top 500 World Universities.