ISTANBUL
By A. Humeyra Atilgan and Hader Glang
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s second-largest inter-governmental organization after the UN, celebrates its 45th anniversary tomorrow.
The date comes amid news that the OIC will convene a forum next month on the Philippines’ troubled Muslim south, between the country’s one-time largest rebel organization and the group it broke away from.
This is just one example of the kind of international activism the OIC likes to highlight.
However, the achievements of this 57-country body, which aims at "becoming the collective voice of Muslim world", are coming under renewed scrutiny – with some observers claiming the OIC has been less-than successful in several of its key objectives.
For its part, the OIC says it is “voice of the wise, moderate and peaceful majority who form the backbone of the Muslim world.” The Anadolu Agency also met members of an OIC youth group who remain committed and fervent enthusiasts of the body’s programme.
The OIC was founded on September 25, 1969 in the aftermath of what it calls a “criminal arson” on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. With member states across four continents, the group has often faced a struggle in coping with the demands of competing political and religious tensions.
“Weak-spirited” is how Professor Ata Atun describes the OIC. An academic at the Near East University in Lefkosa, the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Atun says that most OIC member states have some economic relations with Western countries, which he claims prevents them from taking actions in the way that their Muslim populations want.
As for the OIC being a unified voice for Muslims: "I cannot totally agree with that," says Atun, pointing to ongoing clear and sharp divisions between Islamic countries and denominations, such as Sunni and Shiite Muslims as well as those who support or reject Pan-Arabism.
However, Ufuk Gokcen, OIC Permanent Observer to the UN in New York, told AA that sectarianism should be seen as a relatively short-term problem caused by political divisions and exploitations.
"OIC is the voice of the wise, moderate and peaceful majority who form the backbone of the Muslim world," he said.
Despite these claims of ubiquity, about one-in-three Muslims live in non-OIC member states; these groups do not have a voice in the organization.
About 180 million Indian Muslims, for example, are not represented in the OIC as India is not a member, says Turan Kayaoglu, Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Washington in Tacoma, U.S.
Nevertheless, OIC volunteers themselves are clear about the role of the institution: "The OIC is an alternative to the UN in uniting the Islamic Ummah [community]," says 22-year-old Kenyan student Khadija Dohry.
Studying political science at Marmara University in Istanbul, Khadija says the OIC has a role to play in the development of Muslim countries.
"It is a long process; I believe that we need more dialogue and tolerance, and more Muslims coming together around the table to discuss Islamic affairs," she says.
Khadija is a young volunteer at the Islamic Conference Youth Forum, a key OIC institution which offers a platform for Muslim youth to organize activities for awareness of global issues.
Her colleague Mohammad Usman Hejran, 24, from Afghanistan shares the same belief. He says:
"Our aim here is the same as OIC's, which is to encourage future development in Muslim countries... If we keep trying to work harder to find solutions to the problems, the Organisation will be, if not now, an alternative to UN in the long term inshallah [God willing]..."
Gokcen, however, says "becoming a Muslim alternative to UN" has never been the desire of the OIC member states.
"Not one single member state has ever proposed such a direction," he says. "The OIC, in the UN Secretary-General's words, is a strategic partner of the UN system.
“OIC countries form a considerable voting block and a sub-coordination group within the UN. This group has played a significant role in UN platforms.”
Gokcen says one significant aim of the Islamıc organization is "to enhance and consolidate the bonds of fraternity and solidarity among the member states" and contribute to world peace.
In order to reach this aim, the OIC holds meetings with world leaders plus foreign ministers of member countries and UN authorities. It also keeps detailed reports on regional problems.
Nevertheless, the organization faces accusations of failing to reach these aims.
"Its failure is the failure of the Muslim world in general," says Kayaoglu from the University of Washington.
"Its member states often fail to provide the political support for the OIC to succeed and they keep the OIC on a tight lead," Kayaoglu claims.
Stressing that in international organizations the driving force is always the member states, the OIC’s Gokcen said:
"We should admit that public opinion of the member states expects more effective, concrete actions and interventions from the OIC.
“This will require more capacity and resources as well as political will from member states to consider the OIC as a tool to create a new paradigm to tackle challenges in unity and solidarity."
Turkey, having joined the OIC as a founder member in 1969, expanded and strengthened its place in the organization to build stronger economic and diplomatic relations with the OIC countries, and will be "the leading country of the organization in the near future" according to Atun in Lefkosa.
For Kayaoglu, Turkey is one of the four leading countries in the OIC. "The others are: Saudi Arabia; Iran; and Pakistan.
“The OIC will work effectively when its leading countries work together well. Without the collaboration of the leading countries, Turkish activism in the OIC will not produce major results," Kayaoglu says.
Questions as to whether Turkey can bring more professionalism and effectiveness to the OIC may find an answer during the country's upcoming three-year chairmanship of the organization following the next OIC Summit Conference, which will be hosted by Turkey in 2016.
OIC to convene forum with Philippines Muslim rebel groups
The world's largest intra-Islamic body will bring together the Philippines one-time biggest rebel group and the group it broke away from on October 13 for a forum on the future of the country's Muslim south
Muslimin Sema, a former Cotabato City mayor and chair of the largest of three Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) groups, said in a press statement Wednesday that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) special envoy to the southern Philippines will preside over the forthcoming meeting with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in capital Manila.
At the meeting will be Egyptian government representative Syed El-Masry who leads the OIC's Southern Philippines Peace Committee, whose members include Libya, Indonesia, Senegal, Turkey, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Somalia, Brunei and Saudi Arabia.
The Bangsamoro Coordinating Forum was organized last June by the OIC, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states as a venue for cooperation between the MNLF and the MILF in pushing the peace process in Mindanao -- the second largest and southernmost major island in the Philippines -- forward after a March 27 government-MILF peace deal that brought to a close 17 years of negotiations and ended a decades-old armed.
Sema said Wednesday that the MILF – which broke away from the MNLF in 1977 due to political differences - is an indispensable component of the forum, adding that they look forward to a good meeting where the two groups can possibly "harmonize” their diverse positions on how to solve the decades-old Mindanao Moro issue.
The BCF, whose creation was detailed in a document signed by MILF figurehead Al-Haj Murad last June, monitors the situation of Moro communities in areas covered by a 1996 government-MNLF peace agreement.
Whereas Sema’s group, whose members are scattered in more than 20 “revolutionary states” in Mindanao, is not hostile to the MILF, the MNLF faction led by Nur Misuari is opposed to government - MILF efforts to establish a regional government through the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law currently being deliberated by Congress.
In September 2013, Misuari's group laid siege to the predominantly Christian city of Zamboanga to the March 27 deal, which he claimed is a betrayal of the 1996 OIC-brokered agreement, has left his organization shortchanged, and granted Muslims in the region lesser autonomy.
There is a standing warrant for his arrest on charges of rebellion, violation of international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Expressing optimistic about the MILF participating in next month's BCF, Sema said about 90 percent of the 42 “consensus points” reached in the review of the government-MNLF peace pact are stated in the March 27 deal and the draft law.
The still unfinished review of the now 17-year peace accord, which started in 2007, was plagued by misunderstandings by both sides on the implementation of some of sensitive provisions.
At the first briefing Wednesday on the law before an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives, the MILF warned lawmakers against people who sow fear with the aim of stopping the Bangsamoro’s establishment.
MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told the panel such people use words such as “dismemberment,” “sell out,” “surrender” and “violation of the Constitution” among others.
Referring to the Bangsamoro, he said: "It may mean nothing to you, but it’s the whole world to us. It’s what we got… We implore you then to step lightly on these dreams when you discuss the draft law. Do not trample them. Celebrate them. Welcome them."
Stressing that the “Bangsamoro will further unite our peoples," he added, "There shall be no state within a state. The Philippine state shall remain sovereign. We only ask that we be allowed to govern ourselves.”
He underlined that non-Muslims should not be afraid of the new entity by saying, “The Sharia will apply only to us, Muslims. We will never impose ourselves on communities that prefer not to be part of us.”
Meanwhile Teresita Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, expressed gratitude to lawmakers for the urgency given to the bill, with the committee starting hearings even during the budget deliberations at the plenary.
Since 1977, the MNLF has been an observer member of the OIC, which denied a request by the Philippine government for similar recognition as an observer member.
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