Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 02/10/2007
UN headquarters New York - 2 October 2007 Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Dear Sisters and Brothers, Let me start by wishing you a happy and blessed Ramadan, praying to God Almighty that He may bestow on us all, and the Muslims, the world over, His mercy, blessing and benediction, and guide our deeds to serve and uphold His message to the world. I have the honour to welcome you all to this coordination meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the OIC Member States. We value this opportunity, first as it marks solidarity among us, and, more importantly, as an opportune occasion for us to coordinate our stands and efforts as the UN General Assembly starts its annual meeting. Allow me to express here our deep thanks to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for successfully hosting the 34th ICFM in Islamabad in June, which was distinguished by holding a special session on the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia. Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, The state of the Muslim nation is still characterized by a situation of stalemate of the status quo, which is, at best, unsatisfactory and depressing. Attacks on Islam and Muslims are mounting, and Islamophobia in the West is escalating and gaining ground. The inner fighting and fratricidal quarrels among the Palestinians are deepening, relegating their just cause to the sidelines of the international community’s concerns. The killing, lawlessness, and disarray in Iraq continue unabated. Somalia is plunged into the dark pit of chaos and foreign intervention and occupation, and our frustration and helplessness have become even more pronounced. Under such dismal circumstances, and in these trying times, genuine solidarity among our Member States is highly needed and required. Islamic solidarity was and still is the cornerstone of the edifice of our Pan-Islamic Organisation. We have to exhibit this solidarity and make use of it, especially in this forum. The world measures Islamic strength and solidarity, through the prism of voting pattern of the OIC Member States in this arena of the United Nations. The more unity in our stands on issues, the more weight and influence we can earn in the eyes of the world. I would like to voice my satisfaction for the coherent sense of unity prevailing in the relationship among the members of the OIC Group in New York. It is thanks to the unity and diligent coordinating efforts done by the Group that the international community is increasingly acknowledging the importance of the “Islamic” vote. The OIC Group at the UN Office in Geneva is doing a good job in many issues of concern to the Islamic Ummah. Prominent among them are the questions of Human Rights, defamation of religions and Islamophobia. Presently we are negotiating with the European Commission the terms of opening an OIC Bureau in Brussels. We hope to be able to finalize this matter in the coming few months. I am confident that when we coordinate our efforts we will be able, as a group, to perform with an impactful voting weight which will ensure that our common concerns in the Muslim world are taken into account by others. Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, As we exhort the honourable representatives of our Member States at the UN to work in unison, we, in the General Secretariat, are doing our utmost to rally our Member States around the notion of Islamic solidarity which is the cornerstone of our collective endeavours. We are striving to defend Islamic causes, and to coordinate the Member States efforts in many domains. We are diligently working towards realizing more economic integration, a domain in which we are advancing slowly but steadily. We have managed to set-up a Poverty Alleviation Fund thanks to the generosity of some Member States to address a situation which required solidarity in action. A few weeks ago, we have organised an International Donors Conference on Niger to finance an ambitious project in Niger, aiming at promoting food security through irrigation development and reinforcement of the national food security stock in Niger. The conference was highly successful and the amount of money pledged exceeded all expectation. We are endeavouring to increase and elevate the standard of education in our countries, to promote the sector of science and technology through innovative methods and uplifting the standards of a category of Universities in the Member States. We are engaging the Western officials and the leadership of the European Union with regard to our political concerns in Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere. We earned the acknowledgement of the United States of the importance of the role we are playing as a representative of the collective will of the Muslim world. We have entered into a new interactive relationship with numerous international and intergovernmental organizations, mainly in the West, to better serve the interests of the Muslim world. In short, today the OIC has acquired prominence on the world scene. Its views and stands on issues are now acknowledged and more respected. All this was possible thanks to your guidance, decisions, directives, encouragement and moral and material support. Thanks to this posture, the OIC Group in Washington has gained informal status from the U.S. Administration which has welcomed its establishment as a Group. President Bush has announced that he is in the process of nominating a Special Envoy to the OIC. Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, The implementation of the recommendations of the OIC Ten-Year Programme of Action adopted by the 3rd Extraordinary Makkah Summit is proceeding resolutely, and the OIC draft of the amended Charter is going through its final stages. The Executive Committee, a mechanism established to expedite urgent matters has already been set-up in implementation of the decisions of the said Makkah Summit. The International Islamic Fiqh Academy has been restructured and started to work to rationalize and streamline the interpretation of certain religious texts, and stem the flood of erroneous fatwas and interpretations. As regards the question of Islamophobia, we are engaged in a determined effort to counter this phenomenon. We are endeavouring to raise awareness to the dangers inherent in such a hate phenomenon on different fronts and levels. The OIC Observatory is in the process of releasing its first annual report on this issue, and we are engaging with international organizations and relevant specialized centers in the West to undertake a coordinated effort to combat this trend. Less than two weeks ago, I was lecturing in Georgetown University on this issue, and did the same thing in an event that took place in the U.S. Congress. I take this opportunity to once again invite your kind attention to this pandemic culture which poses a real and direct threat to the Muslim faith and culture, to the supreme interests of the Muslim world and consequently to world peace and security. A collective and strong effort by the OIC Member States should be taken at the highest level to focus the attention on this increasing danger. This is another plea for a more unified position and solidarity among Member States. Our next Summit will be held in Africa, and in the Senegal more precisely. Our next ICFM will take place in Uganda. Two occasions to focus our attention on Africa, and to see how we can be of more help to address the problems facing our brothers there. Since I assumed my duties as Secretary General of the OIC, I declared that the African affairs will be one of my top priorities. Keeping to my promise, we have taken several initiatives in this direction. I have already alluded to some of what the OIC has been doing on the African scene, and we look to the future to do even more and better. In Palestine, and in the wake of the disturbing events witnessed in Gaza which ended in severing the relations between the Hamas-led officials in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, we have called for an urgent meeting of the OIC Committee on Palestine. The Committee convened in June 2007, at the Headquarters of the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah. The Committee exhorted all Palestinian leadership to safeguard and preserve the Palestinian national unity which has suffered a serious damage, and to focus their energy and efforts on defending their legitimate rights and combating the illegal Israeli occupation. It is regrettable to say that the present setback has weakened the Palestinian stand in the eyes of the international community, and distracted the world’s focus from their plight. This unfortunate situation of disunity and internal strife has emboldened the Israelis to persevere in their illegal activities and practices in the judaization of the holy city of Al-Quds and in continuing their policies of confiscating Palestinian lands and construction of settlements, in the absence of the attention of the world. As we express our solidarity with the people of Iraq who are enduring the brunt of one of the most atrocious episode of civil strife, we are trying our best to deal with the situation in Iraq. We are still in the process of discussing with the Iraqi Government the opening of an office in Baghdad. We are a party to the regular meetings of the Iraq neighbouring countries, and we have tried our hands in bringing about a workable reconciliation between the Sunni and Shia factions which are engaged in a bloody fighting in Iraq. The representatives of the two-sides and other religious authorities pledged in the holy city of Makkah, and in the vicinity of the holy Kaaba to put an end to their feud and to disseminate the culture of tolerance and compassion among the people of Iraq. Unfortunately, this pledge was short-lived, but we shall not give up and we will multiply our efforts in this direction. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, In these trying times, if we put the supreme interest of our Ummah at heart, ponder our position in the world and seek the ways and means conducive to improve our posture, we have no other arms or means except the unity of our ranks and our Islamic solidarity. This world forum is the most appropriate place to manifest this unity and solidarity.
