JEDDAH, 11 March 2008 — The Council of Ministers yesterday emphasized the importance of the 11th summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to be held in Senegal on March 13-14 and hoped the summit would strengthen Muslim unity.
“The summit is held at a time when the Islamic world faces challenges and situations that demand joint effort,” the Cabinet said in a statement issued after a regular session chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in Riyadh.
“The Cabinet expressed its hope that the summit would unify the ranks of the Islamic Ummah,” said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. It also commended the efforts of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to make the summit a success.
The two-day summit in the Senegalese capital Dakar is expected to endorse a new OIC charter, informed sources said, adding that it would adopt resolutions to strengthen political, economic and cultural cooperation between member countries. It will also take measures to fight poverty.
OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said the summit would focus on major regional issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the political crisis in Lebanon and the situation in Iraq. OIC foreign ministers met in Dakar yesterday to prepare the agenda for the summit.
A report on Islamophobia in the West, including the publication of cartoons denigrating the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), will be presented to summit leaders, Ihsanoglu said. “The leaders will also review the progress of the 10-year program approved by the emergency Islamic summit in Makkah in December 2005,” he added.
The 10-year Program of Action was prepared to address the challenges facing the Muslim world in an objective and realistic manner.
Reforming the OIC — something that will be carried out by restructuring the organization, revising its charter and reactivating its institutions — is another major goal of the program, which calls for making use of different mass media to serve and defend Islamic causes, promoting Islamic principles and values and correcting misconceptions about Islam.
Under the program, serious endeavors will be made to enhance the scope of political participation, ensure equality, civil liberties and social justice, and promote transparency and accountability, and eliminate corruption in member countries.
Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani said the Cabinet took a number of important decisions. It approved the national plan for frequency spectrum presented by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology.
The meeting also endorsed two memoranda of understanding signed with Poland for cooperation in health and sports.
The Cabinet appointed Dr. Nasser Al-Johaimi, deputy secretary-general of King Abdul Aziz Museum (Darat), Abdullah Al-Garni, mayor of Northern Border Region, Muhammad Al-Hamoud, cultural attaché at the Ministry of Higher Education, and Dr. Muhammad Al-Rabie, director of the office of the Supervision and Investigation Board’s president.
