Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 27/11/2012
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation took part in a conference co-organized, over 24-26 November 2012 in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) and the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs. The Conference pooled together over 200 counter-terrorism experts, practitioners, and law-enforcement officials from a dozen Arab countries and eight European and American countries. In a statement addressed to the Conference, the OIC Secretary General, H.E. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, reiterated the principled position of the OIC, rejecting terrorism in all forms and manifestations or any justification or rationalization for it. He reaffirmed the call launched by the OIC to support global efforts to articulate a consensual definition of terrorism and to develop an ‘International Code of Conduct to Combat Terrorism.’ During the three-day sessions of the conference held under the theme “Security is the Responsibility of All”, participants underlined the pernicious impact of terrorism on social development and growth, the role of civil institutions in combating terrorism, the funding of terrorist activities, the role of government and social institutions in facing terrorist activities, and the role of women and the family in strengthening national identity as part of long-term anti-terrorism strategies. The experiences conducted in the field of counter-terrorism of nine OIC Member States, namely Algeria, Egypt, Iraq Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and UAE, were explored and debated. In its concluding session, the Conference adopted a set of recommendations, notably an OIC recommendation calling for a scale-up of support for the neat implementation of the OIC-sponsored HRC Resolution 16/18 on combating defamation of religions, particularly as the scourge of Islamophobia is increasingly threatening not just social cohesion and peaceful coexistence in many communities around the world, but it more dangerously poses a daunting challenge to international peace and security.
