Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 16/12/2009
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, addressed a message to the Islamic Ummah on the occasion of the advent of the New Hijri Year 1431, the text of which is as follows: Our Islamic Ummah celebrates the advent of the Hijri year 1431. On this occasion, I am pleased to present my congratulations to all Muslims, praying Almighty Allah to make of the New Year a year for the wellbeing, peace and prosperity to humanity at large. We, at the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which celebrates its 40th Anniversary, strongly endeavor to defend Islam and Muslims, through serious work and purposeful dialogue, against the prejudices orchestrated by some against our religion and the attempts seeking to distort our values and corrupt our holy places and our fundamental principles. We also ought to strengthen the pillars of moderation in Islam and project the true image of our religion as a religion of tolerance, compassion and fraternity, and to pull it away from radicalism and extremism. With the thriving of Islamophobia and its serious manifestations, we will spare no effort to combat this phenomenon which represents a source of serious discontent for us as it generates discrimination against Muslims and the violation of their basic rights. We thank Allah that in our Muslim world we have successful models for overcoming crises and meeting challenges, which ought to be emulated in the framework of collaboration and unity among the members of the Ummah. This was achieved through the organization of the first Islamic economic summit recently, which confirmed the political will of the leaders of the Ummah to reinforce economic cooperation and promote commercial exchanges. The Summit was also an occasion to underline the utmost importance the Ummah gives to outstanding economic and social issues. Among these issues is the alleviation of poverty, which is a priority item at the agenda of the OIC, including the development of basic infrastructure such as transport networks which is a sine qua non condition to achieve development and for smooth trade among OIN Member Countries. Railway transport is of great importance in the Member States as demonstrated by the project of the Dakar - Port Sudan Railway Line. The project will reinforce the competitiveness of the export operations of raw commodities, which represent a major part of the national income of most of the countries to be crossed by this railway line. I renew my congratulations for the New Year and pray Almighty Allah to guide us all to the path of truth and righteousness.
