ISLAMABAD Feb 21: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Tuesday that Islam did not believe in the “clash of civilizations” and warned OIC members of the threat of “marginalisation” at the global level.

To make Muslim states an effective force, the prime minister said, “the Organisation of Islamic Conference must assert itself politically”.

“If it [the OIC] doesn’t, even those Islamic states that are endowed with vast natural resources will be not be able to gain political stature,” he said.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Comstech’s 12th General Assembly at the Convention Centre here, Mr Aziz rejected “the clash of civilizations” theory which originated in Europe.

He said the inevitability of a confrontation between Islam and the West had been put forward and the recent publication of blasphemous cartoons was seen as an attempt towards that end. This is partly based on ignorance about the true teachings of Islam and partly meant to demonise Islam.

He said the caricatures were offensive and had hurt the feelings of more than a billion followers of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

“We cannot condone such insensitivities towards our beliefs and condemn such acts in the strongest terms.” However, he pointed out that acts of violence would only “undermine and hurt our own just case and damage the cause of the righteous on the issue”.

Mr Aziz said Islam did not believe in the “clash of civilizations” and instead preached harmony, co-existence, peace and compassion, dialogue, accommodation and harmony to foster understanding and evolve a fair and just global order.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Nauraiz Shakoor, OIC Secretary General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and OIC coordinator general Dr Attaur Rehman also spoke on the occasion.

Mr Aziz said “new threats” of nuclear proliferation, terrorism and extremism, growing gap between civilizations and increased use of unilateralism were “overshadowing the threats of poverty, under-development, territorial disputes, decolonisation and allied matters”.

Despite the fact that many Muslim states had developed and prospered, the prime minister said nearly 24 per cent of the world’s Muslim population earned less than a dollar a day and an average of 39 per cent lived below the poverty line. Even though Muslims made up 19 per cent of the world’s population, he said, their share in income was only 6 per cent.

Furthermore, he asserted that Islamic countries possessed 70 per cent of the world energy resources and 40 per cent of the global availability of raw material, yet their share in global trade was barely 7-8 per cent.