It was almost inevitable that the Cairo meeting of the 56-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation would focus on the seemingly endless tragedy unfolding in Syria. The robust call for international intervention made by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah early in proceedings of the opening day on Wednesday, set the tone for other addresses.
The king’s words, which were read out on his behalf by Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, urged the Muslim world to break its silence on the “ongoing carnage in Syria where the situation is worsening by the day due to heinous crimes perpetrated by the brutal regime in Syria.”
Though Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been attending the Cairo meeting, Syria’s only ally in the Muslim world was not able to mount any convincing defense of the Assad regime.
There was however real concern at Israel’s open meddling in the Syrian conflict, with its warplane attack on targets inside the country. Such blatant interference caused many OIC members to join together in unequivocal condemnation of the Israeli action.
The pity of it is however that the OIC has yet to discover its real power as a unified voice for the Muslim world. As Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, its dynamic secretary-general for the last eight years, made clear in an interview with this newspaper in the run-up to the Cairo summit, it still lacks the strong infrastructure that would give it weight and respect on the world stage. This lack stems in large degree from the failure of all member states to give a full commitment to the organization and to its work on behalf of the Ummah.
Ihsanoglu hoped that the summit would allow a clear examination of emerging challenges facing the Muslim nation and the expanding opportunities within its grasp. This, he said, was particularly true of the Palestinian cause and the troubling issue of Israeli settlements.
There is however a clear danger here, which is simply that the OIC too often finds itself reacting to events, rather than setting an agenda that it can use to drive and form developments. Given the OIC’s need to strengthen its infrastructure, so as to provide an Islamic voice that will be heard and respected around the world, it seems that forming this clear agenda is still a challenge.
Thus, however valuable may be the organization’s analysis and proposals in terms of the Israel-manufactured tragedy of Palestine, and its profound concern at the savagery and blood-letting in Syria, a more profound and longer-term view of Islam’s place in the world is called for.
It may be that, as some have argued, the OIC has tended to be too inward looking and has not addressed the key issue of presenting Islam to the rest of the world. Such a task is surely more important now than ever, given the rise of gross prejudice and blatant Islamophobia in many countries in the West. Nor should it be forgotten that there is more than open hostility at work here. When Turkey first applied formally to become a member of the European Union in the 1980s, most EU member states pretended to welcome the move. Yet as the accession talks dragged on, it became clear that France and most especially Germany were deeply hostile to Turkish membership.
A Turkish banker at a formal dinner in Brussels to welcome a Turkish delegation, in the early days of the negotiations, recalled a French banker whom he knew well, turning to him after the speeches and saying “Of course you will never get in because you are Muslims.” At the time the Turk believed the Frenchman wrong. Events have proved the man right.
Yet Europeans may be ruing the day they dismissed Turkey’s candidacy. While Europe struggles to escape from deep recession, the Turkish economy is surging ahead, with booming exports, strong inflows of foreign investment and a rapidly rising standard of living. And all of this has been achieved under the moderate Islamic government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Nor is Turkey an exception. Throughout the Muslim world, from Indonesia, through Malaysia to the Gulf states, not least here in the Kingdom itself, there are remarkable examples of political, economic and social achievement. Therefore, while members of the OIC tend to be at their most united in the face of great injustice, surely they ought also to be able to come together around the longer-term goal of extolling the achievements of the Ummah and its contribution to world peace and prosperity.
Setting a proactive agenda
