October 20, 2003	Monday	Sha'aban 23, 1424

KUALA LUMPUR: The summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world’s largest Muslim bloc, ended this week with resolutions decrying western domination and supporting the Palestinians, but critics say it failed to lift perceptions that the group remains gripped by paralysis.

Apart from the passage at the summit’s end on Friday of numerous resolutions, the 57-member OIC, which drew 37 heads of state, failed to announce the radical structural changes that members had always talked about but never implemented.

There was also no solution to its financial crisis — Kuwait donated $1 million — or to the perennial problem of member states putting their national interests over that of the ‘Ummah’ or global Muslim community.

A long-standing proposal to form a Muslim Common Market also failed to materialize at the 10th Islamic summit.

Instead, a remark of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that “Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them” completely overshadowed the major issues at the summit and invited condemnation from the United States, Europe, Israel and Australia.

Mahathir, who is OIC chairman but retires as Malaysian prime minister this month after 22 years in power, also said in his opening speech that Muslims had achieved “nothing” in more than 50 years of fighting Israel.

He urged a rethinking of Muslim strategies meet the challenges posed by Europeans and Jews to the Muslim world.

Columnist Bunn Nagara, writing in ‘The Star’ daily, said the “provocative speech” was actually Malaysia’s attempt to rally and rouse the OIC from “various states of stupor, apathy and semi- paralysis”.

“It had to push an otherwise disparate array of 57 nations to rise above their rut, torpor and defeatism,” he said.

But despite the spirited attempt at rousing, the OIC again displayed its penchant for colourful speech and lengthy resolutions that increasingly only reflect the frustrations Muslims feel.

“We Muslims know that the OIC can meet, debate and resolve but not take action. There are too many divisions and national interests,” Dr Sanusi Othman of the National University of Malaysia told IPS. “The OIC is a place to voice Muslim grievances. One cannot expect concerted action like in the EU or in Nato.”

For instance, he pointed to the OIC’s failure to agree on a strong resolution demanding that the United States to give a definite timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

The final session of the summit adopted resolutions dealing with conflicts involving the Muslim world, including Iraq, Israel’s recent air strike on Syria, Kashmir and Afghanistan, but the proposal seeking a definite timetable was withdrawn.

“The US-picked Iraqi Governing Council protested and had the resolution watered down to allow for the US to directly hand over the country to the Iraqis and without an interim UN administration. It is a defeat,” Sanusi said.

Muslim scholars have long demanded a radical overhaul of the OIC. On this point the summit has appointed an expert group to study the reform of the OIC structure, secretariat and find ways to address its lack of funds.

“We want the OIC turned into a dynamic, credible and forward- looking body that could effectively represent the global Muslim voice,” said Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar. “The OIC is changing and evolving and we have to get it moving.”

Delegates at the summit conceded that most member states often act in self-interest and that this has hurt the OIC’s effectiveness and credibility as an institution that could promote and safeguard the common interests of Muslims.

“Without radical changes the OIC cannot face the formidable challenges confronting Muslims in the post-Sept 11 era,” Sanusi said. “Collectively, Muslim nations can face the challenges that the United States posed under the pretext of fighting terrorism. If they remain divided, all Muslim states might meet the same fate that befell Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Delegates also expressed fears that in the post-Sept 11 era, western countries regard Muslims with suspicion, are reluctant to transfer technology to Muslim countries or allow Muslim students and scientists to work at their research facilities.

In their final communique, officials condemned Israel’s air strike inside Syria earlier this month as a “blatant violation” of UN rules and international law. They also slammed the US Congress’ moves to apply sanctions against Syria.

In a special declaration, the OIC urged the UN Security Council “to take the necessary measures to force Israel to desist from such terrorist aggressive acts”, but stopped short of openly supporting the four-year-old Palestinian’ intifadah’.

On terrorism, the summit pledged to “contribute to multilateral efforts to counter this scourge” and included “state terrorism”, a term usually used to refer to Israel’s military actions.

The delegates rejected the “selectivity and duplicity of standards in combating terrorism and all attempts to associate terrorism with a particular religion or culture.”

It urged the UN-level signing of a convention to “distinguish between terrorism and the legitimate struggle for self-determination of people living under occupation or foreign domination”, again referring to the Palestinians.

But the OIC condemned the bombings in occupied Iraq that targeted the UN headquarters in Baghdad and the Jordanian and Turkish embassies as “criminal terrorist bombings”, and urged the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and his officers for “genocidal acts”.

This summit is the first to be held in the Asia-Pacific region and saw the largest number of Muslim leaders in attendance since the OIC was founded in 1969.

The next summit in 2006 will be in Senegal, but expect less pomp but the same angst.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.