Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 30/12/2013
This is the time to count God’s blessings, express thanks and bid farewell. I thank God the Almighty and count his blessing bestowed upon me for granting me success in serving Islam and Muslims at one of the most challenging and trying times of its history that our Ummah is going through. From Him I drew support, upon Him I have relied, and in Him I seek refuge. My thanks go to all those who helped me throughout my mission over the last nine years at the service of the Muslim Ummah. My gratitude in particular is for my competent colleagues who have shouldered the lion share of the work burden. Thanks are also due to the host country, to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, May God’s protection be with him, for his constant support to the OIC. Thanks go to his Crown Prince for his generous sponsorship, to His Royal Highness the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and to the Foreign Ministry team for always responding to the requests of the General Secretariat and its staff in a positive manner. I thank my country, Turkey, which nominated me to this position and for always being ready to lend invaluable support during this long journey. My heartfelt thanks to Member States for their strong support, trust and confidence put in me to serve their political, economic, social, humanitarian and development causes as well as to serve the causes of Islamic solidarity in general. I thank my friends from Jeddah, whose pleasant company and generous hospitality allowed both my family and I to live happily and comfortably amongst them all these years. Even before I started, I set out my vision and mission for the OIC through my inaugural speech delivered on 28 December 2004 wherein I identified ‘increasing the efficiency and accuracy of both policies and activities of the Organization’ as an indispensable precondition to our success in tackling the new, different and unprecedented challenges for the Muslim World as well as for the OIC that are being posed by the twenty first century’s global environment. Throughout these nine years, I committed myself to all that I deemed my duty towards the Ummah, and which the OIC needed to address. My work was always foremost in my mind. All my thinking, endeavor and efforts were focused on one thing, which is the trust I undertook the day I was elected OIC Secretary General. I travelled East, West, North and South and circled around the Globe sixty-two times, but never have I lost sight of that vision and mission. My watch was always set on Jeddah's time as my mind was attached to the work being done at the General Secretariat, follow-up of the developments for the causes of the Muslim world and the actions that I have to carry out in this regard with my colleagues. The OIC was always our priority, and our utmost interest was in work. That was my permanent preoccupation which was often times exhausting for both my body and intellect besides the secondary matters that usually occupy an individual. My colleagues and I have done our utmost to improve OIC's performance and advance our institution to the status of other influential international organizations. By the grace of God, we could make it possible. Today it is acknowledged and admitted by everyone that the OIC has become the second largest international organization after the UN, both in terms of the number of its membership and quality of its work. A clear testimony to this claim is the session held by the UN Security Council last October. The OIC witnessed a paradigm shift since 2005. Major changes could be identified in two different aspects. First, in terms of the work method and its approach to the issues of the Muslim world; and second, in terms of planning and the setting of specific goals and objectives through the unanimous adoption of its ten-year program of action, for the first time in the history of the OIC. I need not dwell again on the achievement of many of the said objectives in various political, economic, social fields, as well as in the fields of intra-trade and science and technology, of which you are kindly aware. In the political field, the OIC changed its traditional approach to the various files it was dealing with since its establishment. It resulted into adopting its own dynamic method inter alia in dealing with the sectarian rifts in Iraq, which led to the 2006 Makkah Agreement, the conclusion of the cease-fire agreement and reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas in December 2006 and the largest participation ever by member states in voting for Palestine's membership at the UNESCO and the UN. The OIC also succeeded in elaborating a plan to develop the city of Al-Quds and solve its problems in the sectors of health, education and housing. The level of OIC's performance in this regard and in all other issues is commensurate with the space open for it, or the space it managed to open for itself. As for intra-OIC trade, the objective set in the Ten-Year Programme of Action in December 2005 is about to be achieved. Intra-OIC trade increased from 14.44% in 2004 to 18.22% in 2012. This reflects an increase in the volume of trade from US$ 205 billion in 2004 to US$ 742.47 billion in 2012. We managed, in this regard, to convince states to finalize their signature and ratification of the Trade Preferential System (OIC-TPS) for it to come into force. In addition, the OIC managed to open new work prospects aspired by our member states as well as the entire Muslim Ummah. This includes humanitarian action which alleviates the suffering of people due to natural and man made disasters, global plights of wars and crises. The OIC was able to attach greater importance to Islamophobia in international diplomatic action. It has gone beyond the phase of confrontation to the phase of cooperation, and launched many initiatives in this regard, the most important of which is the UN Human Rights Council resolution 16/18 of 2011, and subsequent UN General Assembly resolutions. I would like to refer here also to the reform of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) and the amendment of its Statute. Furthermore, the OIC adopted an active policy vis-à-vis Muslim communities and minorities around the world, particularly in the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar.. For the first time since 1981, new organs and organizations were established within the OIC: • The Islamophobia Observatory at the OIC General Secretariat; • The Peace, Security and Mediation Unit at the General Secretariat. • The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) • The Science, Technology and Innovation Organization (STIO) in Islamabad; • The Standardization and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC) in Istanbul; • The Women Development Organization in Cairo. In addition to the above organs, numerous specialized and affiliated organizations were established in various domains not covered by organs operating within the OIC since 1981. The reform and development process which was launched in 2005 will come to an end in two years. However, the accelerating events in the Muslim world would require that we continue the process initiated in 2005 after the end of the first ten years. We must think together of new working methods for quick consultations, position-taking and decision-making in the face of the apprehended critical challenges which the Muslim world might have never faced throughout its history. As my mandate comes to an end, I wish to reaffirm that I would continue for the rest of my life to be conscious and sincere to the concerns and problems of the Muslim Ummah. However, I would also like to say as the burden of responsibility is shifting to competent hands and from my shoulders to stronger ones, the feeling is one of happiness and satisfaction. Here, I wish to express to my friend and colleague, H.E. Mr. Iyad Ameen Madani, my sincere and heartfelt congratulations. I am confident and certain that he will carry the responsibility as well as I did and better. Allow me also to say that with all my capabilities and modest experience, I will be at the Organization’s disposal at all times and in every manner to contribute to the fulfillment of the objectives we have set together. My expertise and experience are also available to Member States for the interest and advancement of the Muslim Ummah. At the end of my statement, allow me to quote these lines from the Prince of Poets, Ahmed Shawki: I consider life a road Upon which the masses travel Toward specific missions And other goals. It is not in vain that people frequent this planet Nor is it for nothing they depart hence. So, look not down on the world you live in Nor deny the existence of the one yet to come But be doubly prepared for your future journey By living uprightly now and by behaving nobly, too. And while walking the paths of life See to it that you conduct yourself honorably: Listening only to what's worth listening to, Trying to behold the good in everything. Be not without some work at hand That you may live as a respected master Not a contemptible slave. And while here, spend your days as a manly man So that those who come after you should say: Indeed, he has passed through here For here are his footprints.
