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Last updated: November 2018

mmahindro@yahoo.com

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

Green are the member States, blue observer status, and red suspended (Syria).

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The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) consisting 57 Muslim states with a

population of more than 1.8 billion was established in 1969 to take care of the interests of the
Muslim world highlighting the concept of Muslim ‘Ummah’. Its charter was signed on September
25, 1969. Its secretariat is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The official language is Arabic, English, and
French. A few countries with significant Muslim populations, such as Russia and Thailand, sit as
the Observer States. The OIC is the largest international organization outside the United Nations
and has a permanent delegation to the United Nations. It changed its name from “Organization of
the Islamic Conference” to the present one “Organization of Islamic Cooperation” on 28 June
2011.

Historical background:
Since the dawn of Islam, the first one thousand years of Muslim history were of
intellectual and scientific leadership. They established observatories, scientific laboratories,
libraries, and research centers. They also led the world in the field of Art and Architecture. By dint
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of their superiority in science and technology Ottomans were laying siege around Vienna (capital
of Austria) in 1526 after capturing Bulgaria, Romania, and other Balkan states. During the same
period, Mughals established a grand empire in the sub-continent.

Subsequently, with the incoming of irresponsible, dishonest leadership, they fell from the high
pedestal of leadership in science and technology to the depths of ignorance. The disintegration of
Mughal Empire in the hands of British in the 18thcentury and fall of the Ottoman Empire after the
First World War are some of its grim manifestations. With the onset of 19th-century the world
leaders began to move in the hands of western nations as they started excelling in Science and
Technology and by the end of 19th century, the whole Muslim world with few exceptions became
the colonies of various European countries.
But history shows that rise and fall is something inbuilt in the character of Muslim Ummah.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War the era of Muslim
awakening once again starts. Even during the colonial rule Muslims never lost heart and
incessantly continued their struggle to shake off the shackles of slavery. Khilafat movement
immediately after the dismemberment of Turkey by the allied powers in the subcontinent,
Movement of the Mehdi Sudani and Sansui of Libya, and the Mutiny and Independence movement
in the subcontinent all bear it out.

Moreover, a desire to reassert Islamic identity has also been actively existent in them. Pan
Islamism of Jamal Uddin Afghani, Ikhwan movement of Egypt and Iqbal’s call for Muslim unity
and resurgence all testify that the concept of Muslim Ummah is deeply inscribed in the
subconscious of the Muslim mind. Though these movements were outwardly independent and
isolated all aimed at the restoration of the lost glory of Muslim Ummah.

In the early days of Islam Muslims had been overwhelmingly united under the leadership of
one caliph. This system remained operative and was believed to be the symbol of Muslim unity
until 1924. Though it started perverting after the pious caliphs, yet Muslims always used to cherish
spiritual affiliation to this institution. And when this institution was abolished by Ataturk himself
in turkey in 1924 a sense of shock ran throughout the Muslim world.
Muslims again started to think regarding reorganizing themselves to achieve the worldwide
solidarity. Eminent Muslim scholars from all over the world met in Mecca in 1926. They pledged
to uphold the cause of Muslim brotherhood and unity. This conference was named as “Motor Al
Alam Al Islam.” Under this Motmar in a world moot in 1951 at Karachi, an important resolution
was passed. It said, “Aggression against any Muslim country would be considered as aggression
against the entire world of Islam.” Before this, in 1949 the Government of Pakistan organized the
world first ever Muslim Economic conference in Karachi for greater economic cooperation
between the Muslim countries.

Ultimately the crushing defeat of Arabs in the hands of Israel during the June 1967 war
helped particularly the Arabs in waking them up from the deep slumber. Subsequently burning
incident of Al Aqsa mosque in 1969 happened to be instrumental in bringing the Muslim world
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closer. This all paved the way for a world Islamic summit conference in Rabat (capital of Morocco)
on September 25, 1969, and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) came into being with its
Head Quarter at Jeddah.

Objectives and Principles:

The main points as mentioned in the OIC charter are as under:

1. Enhancing and consolidating the bonds of fraternity and solidarity among the Member States

2. Safeguarding and protecting the common interests and legitimate causes of the Member States,
and coordinating and unifying their efforts to face the posed challenges

3. Respect the right of self-determination and non-interference in the domestic affairs and
respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of each Member State;

4. Supporting and empowering the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination
and establishing their sovereign State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

5. Strengthening intra-Islamic economic and trade cooperation; to achieve economic integration

leading to the establishment of an Islamic Common Market.

6. Making efforts to achieve sustainable and comprehensive human development and economic
well-being in the Member States.

7. Disseminating and promoting the Islamic teachings and values based on moderation and
tolerance to combat defamation of Islam and encourage dialogue among civilizations and religions.

8. Developing science and technology and research among the Member States.

9. Promoting and to protect human rights including the rights of women, children, youth and
elderly.

10. Combating terrorism in all its forms, organized crime, illicit drug trafficking, corruption,
money laundering, and human trafficking.

Structure and organization:

Islamic summit:
Islamic summit meeting of all heads of states of member states is convened every three years.

Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers:

It is convened every year to examine the progress made on its decisions taken within the
framework of the policy defined in the Summit conference.
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Standing committees:
• Standing Committee on Information and Cultural Affairs (COMIAC).

• Standing Committee on Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC).

• Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH).

• Islamic Committee for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs.

Permanent Finance Committee.

Subsidiary organizations:
• The Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries
(SESRIC), located in Ankara, Turkey.

• The Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), located in Istanbul,
Turkey.

• The Islamic University of Technology, located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

• The Islamic Centre for the Development of Trade, located in Casablanca, Morocco.

• The Executive Bureau of the Islamic Solidarity Fund and its Waqf, located in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia.

• The Islamic University in Niger situated in Say, Niger.

• The Islamic University in Uganda situated in Mable, Uganda.

Specialized institutions

• The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), located in Rabat,
Morocco.

• The Islamic States Broadcasting (ISBO) and the International Islamic News Agency
(IINA), established in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Affiliated institutions:
• Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), located in Karachi, Pakistan.

• World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• Sports Federation of Islamic Solidarity Games, located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

• Islamic Committee of the International Crescent (ICIC), located in Benghazi, Libya.

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• World Federation of International Arab-Islamic Schools located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

• International Association of Islamic Banks (IAIB), located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

• Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation, (ICYF-DC) located in
Istanbul, Turkey.

• General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions, (CIBAFI) situated in
Manama, Bahrain.

Democracy level:
It is regrettable that there are very few Muslim states which can be considered full
democracies. Mostly they are either flawed democracies or Authoritarian Regimes (in the form of
Kingdoms or ruled by the military). However, these authoritarian regimes are on the decline giving
way to democratic powers.

Literacy and Scientific Research level:

Except for Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Turkey where the literacy
percentage is above 90, most of the OIC member states are very low in literacy level. For instance,
it is just 30% in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso and around 57% in Pakistan against the world
average of 86%. It is very tragic that the bottom five countries having lowest literacy level are
Islamic countries.

Economy:
The combined GDP of all the OIC states is around $10 trillion (nominal) with Indonesia
having the highest GDP at around $850 billion. There are very few states which are rich on account
of industrialization the real yardstick to measure the economic advancement of any nation. The
countries which can be considered as moderately industrialized are; Turkey, Indonesia, and
Malaysia. The Gulf States except for Dubai (which is abundant on account of its advanced Services
Sector) are wealthy due to their huge oil resources.

Parliamentary Union of the OIC member states (PUOICM):

The PUOICM of the OIC was established in 1999, with head office in Tehran. In the past,
it discussed stopping Israel from excavating the Al Aqsa Mosque. It also discussed how it could
send peacekeeping troops to Muslim states and withdrawal of the foreign forces from Iraq.

On Terrorism:
The OIC has adopted the OIC convention on combating International terrorism in 1999.
However, the definition of the “Terrorism” as made during the convention has been noted as vague
and ill-defined by the Human Rights Watch. The OIC convention described the Terrorism as “any
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act or threat of violence carried out with the aim of, among other things, imperiling people’s honor,
occupying or seizing public or private property, or threatening the stability, territorial integrity,
political unity or sovereignty of a state.”

OIC delegates in meeting in April in Malaysia while discussing terrorism rejected any
description of the Palestinian people struggle and fight against Israel as terrorism. While
explaining the same, they mentioned that: "We reject any attempt to link terrorism to the struggle
of the Palestinian people in the exercise of their inalienable right to establish their independent
state with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital."

Muslim minority issue in Thailand:

There are Muslim majority provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat in the South of
Thailand and a movement for self-governance is going on there. There have been reports of human
rights abuses in these provinces. OIC expressed its concern in 2005 over the ongoing conflict in
the region as it has resulted in the loss of life of innocent people and has forced the people to
migrate from their hometowns.

In April 2009 the Pattani leader Abu was invited to speak about the conflict to the OIC and
also to present a solution to the same. The battle is going on between the Thai government and the
ethnically Malay Muslims of the socio-economically neglected south who are struggling against
the Thai government for self-governance since 1902, the year when Thailand annexed this Muslim
majority region with it. Abu presented and demanded self-governance rights within the
constitutional framework of Thai land. He criticized the Thai government policy of arming the
Buddhist militia against the Muslims in the region.

The Thai government responded to the criticism and said; “We have made it clear to the OIC
several times that the violence in the deep South is not caused by religious conflict and the
government grants protection to all of our citizens no matter what religion they embrace.” The
Thai Foreign Ministry while dismissing the OIC criticism further said; “If the OIC secretariat
really wants to promote the cause of peace and harmony in the three southern provinces of
Thailand, the responsibility falls on the OIC secretariat to strongly condemn the militants, who are
perpetrating these acts of violence against both Thai Muslims and Thai Buddhists.”
However, the ‘Human Right Watch’ and the ‘Amnesty International’ have expressed the same
concerns as OIC on this issue.

On the Issue of Kashmir:

The OIC always supported Pakistan’s standpoint of resolving the Kashmir issue in
accordance with the UNO resolutions on the subject. The Secretary-General of the OIC, on 27
March 2012 received at his office a high-level delegation of representatives of the Kashmiri people
under the leadership of H.E. Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat
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Conference. The Secretary-General expressed the continued support of the OIC for the aspirations
of the Kashmiri people for the right of self-determination.

India wished to be a member of OIC on account of having the third largest population of
Muslims in the world, i.e., more than 170 million. But the same could not be agreed upon due to
Pakistan’s strict stand against it.

Achievements:
There are three tests for evaluating the performance and scope of the success of any
international organization.

1. The degree of independence of decision making

2. The capacity of touching the essential issues regarding the interstate relations.

3. The significance attached to the organization while framing the foreign policies by the
member states.

When evaluating the performance of OIC on these touchstones, it is very distressing that it
had not been able to address the most critical issues faced by the Ummah. It has badly failed in
resolving both the Islamic world interstate issues and outside the Islamic world. It could not go
beyond the rhetoric level in such matters. Reason being it is not that much coherent inside as
visualized and is still more responsive to the powerful nations of the West than their own brothers
in the Islamic world.

No doubt there are some excellent points where this forum did perform as highlighted above
or it least it acted as a platform where the countries had the opportunity to discuss their mutual
problems and issues. However to make it viable, really performing organization and to harness the
respect it deserves at the international levy concerning the vast human, mineral, and essential
geopolitical strategic locations it is blessed with following proposals are being presented for further
consideration and implementation.

Analysis of performance:
In the wake of the aforementioned, we see that the OIC has certainly come up to forge unity
among the Muslim world, but the objective has yet to see the light of the day in letter and spirit.
The dissection of the issues confronting the Muslim Ummah at present can be briefed as under:

The Palestine issue no doubt has always remained part of the main agenda item in all its
meetings up till now. But the OIC failed to get this issue resolved even after the lapse of more
than four decades.

The OIC has dealt the Afghanistan issue extensively immediately after the Soviet invasion in
1979. But it remained divided on the issue. Although it expressed support for Afghan people but
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failed to categorically support the mujahidin forces actively involved in fighting against the Soviets
in Afghanistan on account of the pro-soviet members in the OIC. However pro-American member
countries kept on assisting the mujahidin and refugees to overthrow the pro-Soviet regime in
Afghanistan. Though the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan has now ended but the point to note
here is that O1C failed to fulfill the expectation of the Afghan people and take a meaningful,
unified stand on the issue.
The OIC also failed in exerting its due pressure to protect the Bosnian Muslims who were
massacred in the hands of Christian Serbs in the former Yugoslavia.

It has also severely failed in resolving Iran-Iraq conflict (1980-89), and Iraq-Kuwait conflict
(1990).

The OIC also could not play any meaningful role in resolving and helping the Muslim
minorities in Philippines, Thailand, and the right of self-determination to Kashmiris, Muslim
sufferings in Chechnya, Myanmar and India. When in 1983 in the Assam state of India many
Muslim women and children villagers were massacred by Hindu fanatics the OIC did not even
protest to India.

The OIC has established some subsidiary and supporting organs to improve economic relations
and foster closer cultural ties among its member states. It has tremendous potential for economic
growth along with an abundance of natural resources and the trained workforce, but it seems that
it lacks the requisite political will to move forward.

The analysis in brief

 Maximum damage occurred due to Iran- Saudi Arabia conflict & proxy wars
 Shia – Sunni divide
 Role of foreign powers which didn’t like any establishment of any organization on the basis
of Islamic religion
 Nonadherence to Islamic principles by the constituents themselves

Recommended “Action Plan” for the Muslim Uma:

To realize the objectives of the OIC following Recommendations/Action Plan is being
presented.

1. OIC must develop a system of furnishing practical proposals and guidelines to all the individual
member states keeping in view there peculiar socio-political and economic expediencies and
requirements to put them on the road to progress and prosperity.

2. Taking and adopting all necessary steps to develop a joint Ummah strategy in the UNO and thus
paving the way for a permanent seat in the Security Council.
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3. Generate a well-structured and sustained dialogue to highlight correct Islamic principles and
values on the subject of terrorism, extremism, and tolerance and adjustment with other ideologies
within and without the Ummah.

4. Devising a foolproof system to resolve long outstanding conflicts between the member countries
and evolve a mechanism for joint Islamic action to implement the OIC resolutions in this regard.

5. Making efforts to devise a central Ijtihad system by associating scholars belonging to all schools
of thought and jurisprudence permanently seated in the secretariat.

6. Launch an educational offensive to uplift the literacy level in the member states both
quantitatively and qualitatively in a time-bound framework.

7. Taking a united stand to resolve the Palestinian issue in accordance with the UN resolutions.

8. Reforming the OIC through empowering it with the highly qualified workforce to promote its
role, and reactivate its institutions.

9. Taking measures to expand the intra OIC trade culminating in the establishment of Free Trade
Area to achieve greater economic integration in addition to facilitating freedom of movement of
people in business and investors within the Islamic region.

10. Strengthening the Islamic Development Bank by injecting more funds into it along with
evolving a self-sustained mechanism to generate and augment its financial resources.

11. Making coordinated efforts with the international specialized institutions and organizations to
alleviate poverty in the Muslim Uma.

12. Creation of an effective Islamic Research and Development Centre to promote creativity and
innovation.

13. Developing an OIC TV channel to present true picture of Islam and educating the masses to
align them along the Islamic code of ethics in the face of the deteriorating ethical fabric of the
youth in the clutches of the western media.

Last word:
As the final word, we can believe that the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
was established to create a Muslim League of Nations to reassert their identity and create Islamic
brotherhood in letter and spirit. But this institution has not been successful in achieving
collaboration among the Muslim states as they are more driven by the forces not seeking guidance
and influence from the Islamic fundamentals and values. The OIC is not that much organized at
present as it must be because the ‘cementing bond’ of this organization, i.e. “the level of attachment
to the Islamic principles” is not that much strong as it should be. Rather, Islamic world more
particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran are more concerned in propagating their own sects and
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economic interests than the collective one of the Muslim Ummah. Civil war going on in Syria and
Yemen supported by Saudi Arabia on side and Iran on the other speak volumes for the same. OIC
has also failed badly in resolving their differences and putting an end to this war of attrition. The
ongoing unrest in the Middle East and that also created by two Muslim states has given a severe
blow towards the unity of this organization. OIC also failed to play any significant role in
disdaining and rejecting the American announcement to shift its embassy to Israel’s new capital
of Jerusalem, whereas East Jerusalem is being demanded by the Palestinian authority to make its
capital. OIC also failed in properly rejecting Israel’s continued building of settlements in the
occupied territories. Therefore we can forecast with sufficient amount of certainty that more we
develop adherence and seek guidance from the divine code the more we will be cooperating and
collaborating with our Muslim brothers around the globe.
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