CAN OIC 'OH I SEE' BECOME MORE RELEVANT?

[Jabhad]

An extraordinary meeting

 

 

For Muslim leaders to admit Islam is in crisis is a bold move, to act on it would be revolutionary, writes Brian Whitaker

 

 

Monday December 12, 2005

 

 

The opening session of the Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Mecca, western Riyadh. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AFP/Getty

 

 

 

Leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries met in Saudi Arabia last week for an event billed as "The Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference". The title was quite a mouthful and it failed to set the western media alight with excitement, but the event itself was extraordinary in every sense of the word.

Speaker after speaker acknowledged that the Muslim world is beset with challenges on an ever-widening range of issues. It is suffering from a deep-seated social, economic and religious malaise with which it has so far proved incapable of dealing. In the words of the summit's final communique: "The Islamic nation is in a crisis".

 

 

Such thoughts are not new, but to hear the confessions of failure expressed with such frankness, by the very people who have been presiding over the mess - and broadcast to millions around the Muslim world - was little short of revolutionary. Equally extraordinary was the fact that these discussions took place in Saudi Arabia - home to some of the world's most reactionary Muslim clerics - at the behest of the Saudi king.

The outcome was a 10-year plan that amounts to nothing less than an attempt to modernise Islam or, as one of the conference papers put it, to "revamp existing mindsets".

 

 

In preparation for the summit, which was held under the auspices of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), three panels of experts had examined the problems in detail. One panel looked at political and media issues, another looked at economics, science and technology, while the third panel considered Islamic thought, culture and education.

 

 

Among the many things in its reports, the political panel said it could see no conflict between Islamic and contemporary universal values. "The message of Islam is a role model for all people to establish the values of equality, justice, peace and brotherhood," it said. Islamic concepts of good governance are "compatible with democracy, equality, freedom, social justice, transparency, accountability, anti-corruption and the respect for human rights".

 

 

With the issue of terrorism in mind, the panel on Islamic thought attacked "reckless fatwas by people who were not qualified to speak in the name of Islam" and stressed the need "to establish a moderate Islamic discourse which is bound to time, place and circumstances and one that is explained in contemporary language". Educational curriculums should be revised in the light of this, the experts added.

 

 

Recognising that the rights of women are "clearly espoused in Islam", the experts called for "an effective strategy for the integration of women in society".

 

 

In response to the intolerant bigots who claim that their version of Islam is the only correct one, they argued that multiple schools of thought "reflect the rich nature of Islamic thought" and called for dialogue with other religions to redress "the existing lack of mutual understanding among cultures and civilisations".

 

 

During the conference itself, there was also a good deal of interest in a suggestion by the prime minister of Malaysia that Hadhari ("civilisational") Islam could offer a way forward. This concept - which focuses on economic and technological development, social justice and religious tolerance within an Islamic framework - has been actively promoted by the Malaysian government as a way of countering extremism.

 

 

The fact that the summit aired all these issues so freely is certainly a big step in the right direction, but it is one thing to talk the talk and another to walk the walk.

 

 

Hopes for success of the action plan are pinned mainly on the OIC, which is the world's largest Muslim body operating at an inter-governmental level. Founded in 1969, the OIC has 57 member-countries and is sometimes mockingly referred to as the "Oh, I see" on account of its usually passive response to momentous events.

 

 

It is plainly not up to the challenge at present, but the aim is to revitalise it with a new constitution and a new headquarters in Jeddah. It already has a new and reportedly highly effective secretary-general in the shape of Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu, a Turkish historian. King Abdullah, the new ruler of Saudi Arabia, who is currently flush with cash from high oil prices, also seems happy to bankroll much of the reform effort.

 

 

Less optimistically, the record of regional organisations in the Middle East does not augur well for a revival of the OIC. The Arab League, for instance, has been bedevilled by the conflicting interests of its members who tend to put their own sovereignty before the common good. If the Arab League cannot get its act together with only 22 members, the prospects for united action by the OIC, with 57 members, do not look particularly bright.

 

 

On the other hand, it is just conceivable that the leaders who attended last week's summit have been so scared by what they heard that this time they may feel impelled to act.

 

 

One of the issues considered by the summit was what to do about the "reckless" fatwas issued by militant or unqualified clerics. The proposed solution is to develop "a credible international Islamic reference based on collective and organised jurisprudence". This would be done through the Islamic Fiqh Academy - an offshoot of the OIC which, again, would have to be reorganised and revitalised.

 

 

In theory this could be very useful if, for example, the academy was able to address misunderstandings of the term "jihad" by coming up with a definitive ruling. However, the academy has been in existence since 1981 and has tended either to steer clear of controversial topics or to make bland statements about them.

 

 

With sincere effort and a little ingenuity such problems might be overcome, but a couple of incidents during the summit raised doubts about how much will there really is to join the modern world. President Hosni Mubarak arrived late, having been busy in Egypt rounding up opposition supporters and rigging the parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, Saudi newspapers reported that an Indian living in the kingdom had been sentenced by an Islamic court to have his eye gouged out. The man had got into a fight with a Saudi who lost his sight in one eye several weeks later. As the archaic adage goes: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.