For a body that has existed for nearly 40 years the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has earned a name for being long on rhetoric and short on substance. This Saudi Arabia inspired cabal of 57 countries has proved to be woefully inadequate in meeting the biggest challenge facing the Muslim world that has something to do with its image in the outside world, particularly the rich and powerful West. At its summits and other gatherings the OIC seems content to do little else than religiously pass resolutions pouring scorn over the real and imaginary enemies of Islam. True to form, at an ‘extraordinary’ meeting in Mecca on December 7 and 8, the OIC blasted India for its ‘oppressive rule’ in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Once again, the OIC mightily pleased one of its members, Pakistan by denouncing India and asking New Delhi to end its ‘oppression’ by holding a plebiscite in the state.

It is a little baffling that while Pakistan worried over the swelling ranks of disgruntled and disillusioned people in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has been becoming louder and louder in proclaiming that ‘plebiscite’ is no longer its preferred option to end its ‘dispute’ with India over Kashmir, the OIC continues to think otherwise. Just one small instance of how irrelevant OIC must be sounding in the international community!

One of the major factors responsible for battering the image of most Muslim countries is that barring a few exception, most of them have repressive regimes ruled by autocrats or corrupt men and who continue to deny many individual freedoms to their citizens even as they want the world to see them as ‘enlightened’ and ‘moderate’.

OIC leaders shed copious tears for ‘human rights’ in Kashmir but most of them are well known for routinely abusing human rights in their own countries. The less oppressive regimes in the OIC are at best quasi-democratic while many of them will pass for police states, which have bred radicalism, religious fanaticism---and terrorism.

Minorities in most OIC states are treated as second-class citizens with some countries, even denying the right to worship to non-Muslims even within the confines of their homes. The system of ‘justice’ in some of these countries is based on the medieval theory of ‘eye for eye’, a grim reminder of which has come to many Indians as a Keralite awaits the Saudi authorities to gouge one of his eyes as a form of punishment for damaging the eye of a Saudi national during a scrap between them some years ago.

Voices demanding freedom and democracy in these countries never reach the ears of the rulers and are promptly crushed. A limited exercise of municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, open only to males, was hailed as a big step towards democracy! The Saudi rulers are said to be worried over the bad name their country gets for being the home to so many terrorists; yet absolutely nothing is done to break the hold of a particularly severe form of religious orthodoxy in the country. Among the OIC members are some of the richest countries in the world with large oil and gas reserves, yet poverty remains a curse to many OIC states. The rulers of these countries have a reputation for leading extraordinary lives of luxuries. They spend recklessly on buying arms and ammunition, not on building or strengthening the economies of their country.

The combined gross domestic product of all the 57 members is less than that of any West European country like the UK, France and Germany. The rich OIC countries control their purse strings even when a fellow member state is hit by unprecedented natural disasters. Oddly, the suffering nations find that the US—generally seen in OIC countries as Satan—becomes the richest donor in such cases.

Relations between some of the leading OIC members and the US have been intriguing. The US reads the democracy Mantra to them and yet appears perfectly at home in the company of tyrants and dictators.

The US gets more serious in transplanting democracy only in those countries it deems unfriendly but its efforts at ‘liberation’ leave that country more miserable than it was under the ‘despot’. The OIC shirks from lending a strong helping hand in the reconstruction of the devastated Muslim country awaiting the dawn of ‘democracy’.

OIC has failed to do anything to improve the poor record of most of its members in matters like education, health and economic development. Backwardness remains an internal enemy. While heaping abuses on ‘the enemies of Islam’, the OIC has remained more or less a passive spectator as the fearsome spectre of ‘clash of civilisation’ looms large in Europe and divisions and depression overtake the Muslim world. Many analysts say there is a debilitating feeling of helplessness in the Muslim world.

Not the least problem facing the Muslim world is terrorism which has given an undeservedly bad name to Islam. But the OIC has no recipe to meet this challenge beyond repeating the cliché that the solution lies in removing the ‘root cause’ of anger among the Muslims.

There are some other ‘root causes’ too which are tacitly acknowledged by many member states. In Pakistan, for instance, they want Madrasas to be regularised and their curriculum reshaped to include subjects like science and mathematics.

Preaching of hatred is denounced but not effectively checked. Many clerics in OIC countries emphasis the differences between the faithful and the non-believers and yet the OIC speaks of the need for tolerance and coexistence.

It is no secret that in many rich people in OIC countries contribute to the coffers of militant—banned-- organisations; in some cases even the governments are suspected of being generous towards these outfits even as outwardly they denounce terrorism. Integration of the Muslim population in many European countries remains a problem and the OIC has made no contribution to encourage assimilation of the Muslim minorities in these countries.

Having failed to either improve the collective image of its member states or play any significant role in removing poverty among some of its members the OIC has failed to make an impact beyond the Muslim world.

Its rhetoric might please some but to be an effective player on the international stage the OIC clearly has to reorient its priorities and rejuvenate itself—not by rhetoric and annual diatribes against Indian ‘oppression’ in Kashmir.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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