Speech by the Secretary General of the OIC at the Foreign Ministers meeting

 Your Highnesses and Excellencies,

Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

I have the honor to address you at the outset of this important meeting meant to finalize and adopt the Work Programme and prepare the documents to be submitted to the leaders of the Muslim Ummah at the Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference starting tomorrow morning in Makkah Al Mukarramah.

I wish to begin by renewing my thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz, for his kind initiative to convene this Extraordinary Summit at this critical moment in the history of the Muslim Ummah. I must also express my gratitude to the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the excellent arrangements made for the Summit and to host the Summit participants in order to ensure full success. I wish particularly to thank His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al Faisal, the Foreign Minister, for his constant support he has been giving to us and the competent staff of his ministry since we began the preparation for this extraordinary summit. We are indeed very grateful.

It is our hope that this meeting will adopt the agenda of the Third Extraordinary Islamic Summit after all the accompanying documents have been studied. As you are well aware, the agenda will direct the course of the Summit’s deliberations and the final documents to come out from it.

We also hope that the meeting will adopt the Ten-Year Programme of Action, which, once approved by the Extraordinary Islamic summit, will constitute the Roadmap to guide Joint Islamic Action for one whole decade. In view of the importance of this document, I find it useful to explain that the Programme is a summary of the most important recommendations of the meeting of scholars and intellectuals held in Makkah Al Mukarramah at the initiative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz. A large number of scholars in various disciplines from within and outside the Member States participated in the meeting. Over the course of three days, they considered the challenges confronting the Islamic Ummah, and offered important ideas and suggestions on how to deal with them. You will find in the Secretary-General’s report submitted to the Extraordinary Islamic Summit a summary of the ideas and recommendations of the scholars and intellectuals. The Ten-Year Programme of Action also contains many of the ideas and suggestions of the Eminent Persons Committee constituted by the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference, especially as regards enlightened moderation and the reform of the OIC.

The Draft submitted to your esteemed meeting has been thoroughly studied and discussed by the OIC Member States, with a number of amendments introduced to enrich it. The General Secretariat has incorporated all the amendments proposed by the Member States into the document before you. This is to facilitate the work of this meeting, especially as we have to consider all the items of the agenda today before proceeding to Makkah Al Mukarramah, in preparation for the inauguration of the Extraordinary Islamic Summit tomorrow morning, Allah Willing.

Moreover, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the host country, will prepare the Makkah Al Mukarramah Declaration and will hold consultations with the Member States before the Summit adopts the Declaration, as is the practice at all previous Islamic Summits.

Your Highnesses and Excellencies,

The Muslim world today faces enormous and growing challenges, with grave implications for our political, economic, cultural and scientific conditions. This situation has weakened the position of the Islamic Ummah in the contemporary world and hampered its pioneering role in consolidating the values of equality, justice, peace and development.

The protracted crises the Islamic Ummah has gone through have broken its latent power and spread conflicts among the States of the Muslim World. In the fields of economy, science and technology, the indices of economic development have reduced, poverty has increased while the role of the private sector has shrunk, leading to growing unemployment and increasing debt burden. The Muslim World has not been able to catch up with the scientific and technological progress to the extent that, in this regard, we have become dependent on the rest of world.

The last few years have witnessed the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia, which has hindered proper understanding of Islam and Muslims. This disturbing phenomenon has significantly increased the suffering of Muslim communities in the West and led to the distortion of the tolerant image of Islam. It is impossible to separate Islamophobia from international terrorism, a phenomenon that has seriously dented the reputation of Muslims, even though many States of the Muslim world are themselves victims of terrorism.

These enormous challenges have led the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz, to invite his brothers, the Kings and Heads of State to meet in an Islamic Extraordinary meeting in order to examine these challenges and explore the best means to face them collectively, so as to salvage the Ummah and remove it from the state of weakness to that of strength and influence, and from the state of passivity to that of proactivity. Having realized these challenges, and because of their belief in the importance of collective action, the leaders of the Islamic Ummah have responded to the urgent invitation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, by agreeing to hold the Third Extraordinary Islamic Summit in Makkah Al Mukarramah.

Your Highnesses and Excellencies,

The entire Muslim world is awaiting the results of the Summit with the hope that it will be a watershed and decisive phase in the history of Islamic solidarity. They hope this would be a Summit that will diagnosis the ailment and prescribe the best remedies to confront the huge challenges facing the Ummah at this critical stage.

The Third Islamic conference in Malaysia symbolized the willingness of the Member States to reform the Organization of the Islamic Conference, having produced the Committee of Eminent Personalities which was mandated to develop a comprehensive vision for the reform of the Organization. The report of that committee is included in the documents given to you.

Similarly, the 32nd Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held in Sana’a was an important step towards strengthening the reform project, as the same Conference adopted clear resolutions in that regard. Consultations are ongoing between us, H.E. the Foreign Minister of Yemen and members of the troika in order to implement those resolutions.

In line with this energetic spirit, we have prepared a draft Ten-Year Programme of Action wherein we stated the challenges that threaten the Ummah as well as the means to face them. Since the OIC General Secretariat is the main vessel of Islamic solidarity, it is must have a central role implementing the new strategy and objectives of the Islamic World. But this cannot be possible without a comprehensive review of the Charter, the objectives and mission of the OIC. Such a review will make the Organization effective and attuned to the contemporary spirit and capable of carrying the burden of leading Joint Islamic Action and meeting the expectations and aspirations of the Islamic Ummah for the twenty-first century.

I wish your deliberations full success and thank you for your kind attention.

Wa Sallam alaikum Wa Rahamatullahi Wa Barakatuh.
 

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