Daily Times

The Muslim world is currently facing a myriad of internal and external challenges. As far as the internal challenges are concerned, they are marked with deep social, political and sectarian cleavages coupled with ever burgeoning economic blues. Externally, the most pervasive challenge that the Islamic world is confronted with today is mushrooming islamophobia. Anti-Islam lobbyists have launched a nefarious campaign to undermine the swiftly growing influence of Islam by equating it with terrorism and intolerance. Therefore, Islam, its founder, and its adherents are repeatedly subjected to constant censure by the Islamophobes.

Recent attempt of Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders to denigrate the holy prophet (SAW) through holding a cartoon contest is a testimony to the fact that Islamophobia is increasing at an exponential rate in the non-Muslim world, especially the west. In fact, it is a backlash to the rapid growth and widespread embracement of Islam generally in the world and particularly in Europe. A religious forecast for 2050 PEW Research concludes that the global Muslim population is expected to grow at a faster rate than the non-Muslim population. Therefore, anti-Muslim forces are employing all available resources to arrest the growth of Islam. Moreover, there is also a ubiquitous paranoia in the western world that Islam might replace their years-old political, social and economic entrenchments, and thereby put an end to their luxurious and immodest style of living.

Sadly, the role of OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), to counter the negative propaganda against Islam has been quite dismal. It has abjectly failed to fulfill the aspirations of the Muslim ummah. It has done nothing worthwhile to effectively address the maladies that affect the Muslim nations in any tangible form and project the true image of Islam that is indubitably the very antithesis of what is being promoted by the anti-Islam forces. “A toothless paper tiger” this is how the OIC is dubbed by its critics. The main reason and objective for which OIC was established in 1969, was to safeguard and protect Muslim rights and interests globally have not been achieved.

Despite the fact that OIC member countries possess 70 percent of the world’s energy resources and 40 percent of the available raw material, their GDP is only 5 percent. Also, no Muslim country ranks highly on the Human Development Index.

This gloomy picture of the Islamic world is not limited to economic and social spheres only; it also miserably lags behind in the realm of education and technology. None of its educational or research institutions are ranked amongst the top 100 in the world.

This gloomy picture of the Islamic world is not limited to economic and social spheres only; it also miserably lags behind in the realm of education and technology. None of its educational or research institutions are ranked amongst the top 100 in the world

There are multiple politico-socio-economic and religious causes behind the failure and the sorry state of affairs of the OIC. The most prominent among them is the lack of unity amongst Muslims. The Islamic world is divided politically and religiously.

Politically, it has been divided into two camps, there are countries belonging to western camp and the others that represent the conservative camp. A continuous struggle is being witnessed between these two divisions. The pro-west camp is keen to implement western political order whereas the opposite camp wants to adopt an Islamic political system. Religiously, Shia-Sunni schism has also created hurdles in the way of success of the OIC. The Muslims have never been able to raise themselves above this division and think in terms of acting like one ummah. This very situation prevailing in the Muslim world gives an opportunity to the enemies of Islam to further their vested interests by engaging Muslims to fight against their own Muslim brothers. The ongoing Shia-Sunni fight in most parts of the Muslim world is part of international intrigue orchestrated by Islamophobes.

Additionally, different forms of governments e.g. democracy, kingship, military rule etc are in practice in the Muslim world. Therefore, there is no coherence and harmony in the thinking of the rulers. Inefficient and incompetent leadership is also a major contributor to the failure of OIC. Except for Tayyab Erdogan, Mahathir Mohamad, and Imran Khan, we hardly find any other name in the Muslim world who can be called a leader.

Economically, most of the Muslim countries belong to the third world and are engaged in developing their respective economies. For this reason, they have to bank on foreign powers for financial aid. This, in turn, provides an opportunity for foreign powers to exploit the situation to their own advantage and compel the third world countries to capitulate to their whims.

Furthermore, most of the Muslim countries are utterly backward in the field of science and technology. When a country is technologically behind and cannot make even a minor part of its machinary, how can it challenge an advanced country and face its might?

Apart from this, the absence of a strong military power also contributes to the impotence of the organisation. Ever since its creation, it has paid no heed to strengthen itself militarily and emerge as a formidable force at par with NATO.

All these aforementioned factors inhibit the OIC to play a significant role in the international arena. This melancholic state of world’s second biggest organisation warrants an immediate overhauling and reformation. In my opinion, there are solutions to make OIC a vibrant, dynamic and a potent organisation. First of all, an institutional mechanism for conflict resolution with the member state should be developed on priority basis. OIC should be renamed as the ‘Muslim Union’ so that it may inculcate feelings of unity and integration amongst the Muslim populace. Moreover, a Muslim think tank needs to be formed to provide guidance and counsel to its member states on political, social and economic issues and develop a strategy to counter the nefarious plots of islamophobes. Also a dedicated department in the OIC secretariat to promote intra-OIC trade should be established. Lastly, OIC member states should   contribute at least 0.5% of their respective GDP for implementation of these objectives.

To cap it all, given the current surge of islamophobia, OIC could emerge as the most relevant organisation of the world by playing a constructive role between Muslims and the people of other faiths. It could also be the voice of the 1.5 billion Muslims, highlighting their issues on an international platform and could be used to represent Islam which is imbued with tolerance, peace and love.

The writer is an advocate in High Court. He can be reached at syedabdulrasool1@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, September 9^th 2018.