“OIC: ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE”

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Lesson 31

"OIC: ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE"

Text of handout for students

Note: The text of this handout reproduces a section from the book titled: "Reasserting International Islam: A

focus on the Organization of the Islamic Conference and other Islamic Institutions" by Saad S. Khan with a

foreword by John L. Esposito, published by Oxford University Press. This particular section is taken from

the last chapter titled: "Epilogue: Islamic challenge in the 21st century".

Students are advised to read the principal and relevant sections of this comprehensive and well-researched

study in order to obtain an accurate understanding of the OIC as it has evolved and as it exists at the start of

the 21st century.

Agenda 21: Future Directions

The answers to the staggering questions about the role of political Islam, its `hidden' Islamic agendas and its

likely directions in the 21st century, are not easy to predict. In any case, the conscious, subconscious and

unconscious biases are likely to influence the perceptions of a beholder on the topic. It was never the

intention of this book to provide conclusive answers, which should better be left to the final arbiter

History. The underlying purpose of the work was to bring the discussion on the future of international Islam

from the realm of rhetoric and prejudice to that of reality.

The academics and policy-makers of the day may get an insight into political Islam through an incisive

description of the strengths and weaknesses, as well as past record, present orientation, and the future goals

of the international Islamic institutions. These institutions promote the confidence-building process and

provide a forum for meaningful cooperation. No group of nations can join together in a Union in a vacuum,

without such proper infrastructure and without undergoing the evolutionary process that it entails. Such

infrastructure of institutions definitely precedes a meaningful long-term alliance but the latter does not

necessarily follow the former.

The argument is that the strength or weakness of international Islam and the Muslim bloc is inextricably

intertwined with these organizations. This freemasonry can be the vanguard of an Islamic Union (on the

pattern of the European Union), if at all, any progress is ever made in the direction. Arguing on the same line

that international organization is the only conceivable framework that can bring together the Muslim states,

Noor Ahmad Baba notes:

"The Muslim world, like the rest of the modern world, operates under the dualistic pressures of centripetal

and centrifugal forces. This is a phenomenon of the post-industrial revolution world society that has on the

one hand, increased interdependence of countries and thereby necessitated co-operation among them and on

the other hand proliferated the world into smaller identities and further sharpened and strengthened their

consciousness as Nation-States. International governmental organization in this regard has been a product of

the human genius to accommodate these conflicting realities and make them converge for positive gains. In

this connection, the international governmental organization framework has provided an ideal model for

cooperation at different levels while allowing nations to preserve their separate hood."

There is no denying the fact that the OIC and its subsidiary institutions have achieved much less than what

the pioneers had envisioned. Most of the lofty goals and ideals are still on paper alone. The Muslim

Common Market, the Islamic Free Trade Area, the Islamic Collective Security System and many such things,

which the OIC has long been harping about, are yet unrealized dreams. But for our purpose, it is the

potential, rather than performance of the Islamic institutions that is relevant. The atmosphere in the Muslim

world at present, owing to separate nationhood of the states, parochial outlook, mutual suspicions, and the

often incongruous economic interests may not be very hospitable to a serious effort at evolving a consensus

on the future political order. Nevertheless, the decades of experience in diplomacy of the Muslim states and

organizations, ramifications of global political trends, fading away of colonial legacies and the existence of a

good measure of areas of complementarily, are the counter-factors that cannot be discounted. At best, the

Islamic Conference can turn out to be a League of Nations (LoN) of the Muslim states, which organization

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was a failure in its own reference but on its ashes, rose a more assertive and confident organization, the

United Nations.

The phenomenon of the OIC and other Islamic organizations should be taken as a process, not an event.

Based on religious foundations, the Islamic organizations are using the Islamic tradition in convergence with

modern organizational framework to serve the community of Muslim states. It is also true that these

organizations have challenged the rising role of secular ideas in Muslim societies and have disproved the view

that secularism is the order of the day. More than that, the OIC experience has shown that in some respects

at least, religious affinity becomes a stronger basis for cooperation than geographical proximity. The Arabs'

experience with invoking Arab linguistic nationhood or socialist ideological bonds, to counter Israel failed

miserably. It was the oil, and it alone, that kept the Palestine issue alive on the slogan of a Muslim people

(Palestinians) being displaced and oppressed, which the Arab League failed to realize prior to the inception of

the OIC.

The role of international Islamic organizations is vital in another respect also. Unlike the hard-line Islamist

political parties, with localized influence within the Muslim states, one may agree, the international Islamic

organizations are forces of moderation. Their solidification as bridges between Islam and the West, may

eventually contain the Islam-West rhetoric. On their part, the Islamic organizations should conduct

themselves so as to be seen by the Muslims and other civilizations and societies alike as assets, in order not to

fan the atavistic fears about Islamic resurgence in the West.

For the West, any under-estimation or overestimation of the phenomenon would be equally inappropriate.

Much more counter-productive would be dubbing Islam in stereotypes of extremism, anti-Westism and as

something repugnant to progress and development. Islamic resurgence is a potential agent of change. The

West should not take change as anathema; otherwise this may inadvertently precipitate another cycle of

uncalled-for rivalry and conflict. The best response at present would be co-operation, trust, and mutual

respect.

Economic imperatives are rising to the fore and will inevitably overshadow other imperatives such as politics,

ethnicity etc. Every actor or group of across recognizes peace and development for humanity as the ultimate

goals, strives for them or its own people but professes them for all mankind. A great challenge awaits the

world in the 21st century which will neither be European, American, or an Asian century but will be a world

century, not by choice but of necessity. Globalism will force the pace of regionalism and the development of

regional economic zones which capitalize on complementarities and synergies with a view to become better

competitors in the global market. When that challenge comes, it would require a high degree of sagacity,

wisdom, and statesmanship, from the leaders and peoples of all the nations, to work collectively for the

common good of the human race and its abodethe earth.

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