İhsanoğlu seeks active role for OIC in global affairs

Representatives of more than 50 Islamic countries met yesterday ahead of a two-day summit, with delegates saying the world's largest Islamic organization must reform if it is to deal with the “great challenges and dangers” it faces.

Foreign ministers and senior officials of the 57 states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) opened discussions to prepare for the summit, which begins today and is expected to forge a plan to reform the group and give it more clout.

“The 'Muslim nation' is facing great challenges and enormous dangers targeting its cultural foundations and religious creeds,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in an opening speech yesterday.

In his opening statement to the ministers yesterday, OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu warned of what he described as increasing “Islamophobia.” “This has led to a complete distortion of Islam and the whole Islamic world has become a victim of this phenomenon,” he said.

İhsanoğlu, a Turk who took over as OIC head in January, also proposed a plan for restructuring the 36-year-old organization over the next 10 years so it can take a more active role in international affairs.

“The long periods of crisis that hit the Islamic world have led to the disintegration of its inner power and the continuation of crises among Muslim countries,” he said.

İhsanoğlu did not give any details of his plan but delegates said he is seeking to remodel the OIC along the lines of the European Union or United Nations in a bid to give its members more power. The 57-nation group has had only an advisory role with annual summits that often serve as little more than a discussion forum.

Delegates at yesterday's meeting said İhsanoğlu was seeking to convince the OIC to ask for a seat at the U.N. Security Council for the Muslim world, and that his proposal focused on issues of human rights, democracy, women and conflict resolution in Islamic countries, as well as restructuring the group's secretariat to give it more powers -- but ministers might not be prepared to endorse all of the proposals.

“There is a lot of wishful thinking in this paper, the Islamic countries are not ready to take such a big dose of reform ... not yet,” the delegate said. All delegates spoke on condition of anonymity because the document has not yet been officially released.

The OIC, which was founded in 1969, is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.