Organization of islamic countries

OIC restructuring (This article was prepare before MAkka Confrence. NEcessary figures may be updated by some one) OIC RESTRUCTURING Introduction Own words on the lines of enlightened moderation Events Leading to the Birth of Idea 1. President Pervez Musharraf said during his address to OIC head of state meeting in Malaysia that a restructuring of the OIC was necessary to ” evolve a strategy to secure justice” for Muslim nations. He further added that the Ummah could boast of a combined GNP of $1400 billion while Japan alone had a GNP of $4500 billion; the Ummah had only 500 universities and produced 1000 PhDs a year while Japan had more than 9000 universities and tiny England produced 2000 PhDs annually. The idea was supported by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who told that the Islamic world needed to reassess its priorities and embark on ” concrete action.” Malaysia’s outgoing Prime Minister added in the same meeting that Muslims built a great civilization but halfway through ” came new interpreters of Islam who taught that acquisition of knowledge by the Muslims meant only the study of Islamic theology. The study of science, medicine etc. was discouraged. Intellectually the Muslims began to regress”. 2. Reasons for Reform a. The remarks by the two leaders should be seen against the tragedies faced by the Muslim world. These include the Anglo-American attack on Iraq without UN authorization and the continued persecution of Muslim peoples in Kashmir and Palestine. b. Going back a bit further, one can recall such horrors as the anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, and last year’s officially inspired pogrom in India’s Gujarat state. To these tragedies the OIC’s response has been conspicuous by its absence. c. In the case of Gujarat, several European diplomats visited the riot-hit areas, and their governments later released reports highly critical of the Gujarat government. As against this, not a single Muslim diplomat visited Gujarat. d. OIC’s list of accumulated failures is too long and restructuring would have come anyway. Its failure to do enough for Palestinians, Chechens, Moro Muslims etc are indicators for a massive reforms. e. OIC’s head of state meeting was called three days after the American attack on Afghanistan on 7th October 2001. It was in no position to help the Afghans once the attack had already started. f. Pakistan gets verbal support from all the OIC members on Kashmir issue but at the same time same members assure India of continued support for obvious economic reasons. Each country plays upon its own interests disregarding the interests of Ummah. There is no sense like that. g. That Muslim countries lack economic and military strength is widely known and recognized. h. No Muslim country is a G-8 member, but there are other assets to which the OIC does not seem to attach much importance. These include oil wealth and other natural resources, a strategically-located land mass, and a billion plus population that is not without scientific talents. Yet the OIC has made no effort to harness these potential sources of power and influence, the main reason being a distressing lack of political will. j. Most Muslim countries have low literacy rates and are backward technologically. The Muslim countries have failed to develop economic cooperation amongst themselves at the regional or Ummah level apart from the fact that their vast natural resources were exploited by foreign powers to their disadvantage. k. The Ummah has failed to present a united stand in the face of the challenges of globalization and has played a marginal role in the deliberations on the international economic fora. l. The Muslim world has failed to cope with the challenge of ‘the battle of ideas’ by not presenting an alternative which would cover political, economic, social and cultural assets of life in the modern world. m. A major reason was the apathy of the Muslim nations towards the OIC. At the end of OIC head of State meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia, a communiqué was issued. A telling commentary on how member states felt about the OIC was provided by the inclusion in the communiqué of two paragraphs that noted the non-payment of contributions by some of the member countries and offered them a special deal of a 50 per cent exemption from payment of arrears if they paid their regular contributions in the coming two years. 3. Contents of Putrajaya Communiqué. In some measure the action plan contained in the Putrajaya declaration tried to depart from the reiteration of old positions and to suggest some concrete measures that could be taken. This showed the effect of enlightened moderation on the OIC. These included: a. Using the Islamic fiqh academy, duly restructured to enhance a dialogue between Muslim scholars b. Using the troika of the OIC summit and the friends of the chair to initiate a review of the positions of OIC members on various international issues and to see how greater unity and cohesion could be brought about between the OIC members c. Using the troika of the OIC summit and the friends of the chair for a dialogue with other cultures and civilizations with a view to bringing about ” enlightened moderation” and greater understanding of Islam as a religion of peace and understanding d. Other measures for promoting greater economic collaboration, cooperation in information and communication technology or even devising alternative payment arrangements for trade between the Islamic countries or on the restructuring of the OIC secretariat were, by and large a rehash of proposals that have been made earlier and have remained largely unimplemented. 4. Envisaged Plan of Restructuring. Currently the Committee Orf Eminent Persons as proposed by President Musharraf has taken up following issues for the reform of OIC. Their goal is to restructure and strengthen the OIC to function effectively through its institutions with a view to promoting and serving vital interests of Muslims and thus to achieve unification of Ummah. They are considering following proposals: – a. New institutions like Majlas-i-Shoora, defence and security council, Islamic international court of justice, law reforming council, council of trade and commerce, foreign affairs council, Baitul Maal (Islamic monitory fund), disaster management committee and health and education committees