POLITICS: OIC Meet Exposes Muslim World’s Rifts

By Baradan Kuppusamy Reprint | | Print |

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 2006 (IPS) - Notwithstanding the strongly worded demands for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and intervention by the United Nations, the emergency session of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in the Malaysian capital only managed to expose a lack of unity within the Muslim world.

The bombing of Lebanon has continued and a ceasefire is nowhere in sight, making it clear that the fulminations at the OIC have not impressed either Israel or its backers, the United States and Britain.

”The OIC statement is another voice that would reinforce the chorus of voices against the bombing,” said Chandra Muzzafar, president of the Kuala Lumpur-based International Movement for a Just World, in an interview with Radio Singapore.

Leading Muslim nations, including Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, and Pakistan declared support for the Lebanese people “in their legitimate and courageous resistance against the Israeli aggression”. ”We demand that the United Nations Security Council fulfill its responsibility … by deciding on and enforcing an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire,” the OIC said

Muzzafar said the OIC statement had some ‘’moral value”. ”But beyond certain moral input, I don’t think the OIC statement would, in itself, lead to concrete action, or would force the global powers-that-be to sit up and take notice”.

Like other academics and political analysts, Muzzafar feels that beyond statements OIC members, especially the Arab countries, are unlikely to pursue concrete action.

“This for the one very important reason that some of the leading Arab states, like Saudi Arabia, are very, very close to Washington and London,” Muzzafar said, summarising the deep divisions in the OIC.

The meeting was divided. Shia countries, especially Iran, took a hard line, demanding that Israel be “wiped out” from the face of the earth, while moderate Sunni countries like Malaysia and Indonesia were content with voicing demands for an immediate ceasefire, followed by U.N.-led peacekeeping.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly told OIC leaders, in closed door meetings, that only wiping out Israel would solve the current crisis. “The real cure for the conflict is elimination of the Zionist regime, but there should be first an immediate ceasefire,” he said, according to an Iranian news agency report.

However, moderate Muslim nations stuck to demanding an immediate ceasefire with Malaysia immediately pledging 1,000 troops for peacekeeping in Lebanon.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said the Israeli offensive had infuriated Muslims across the world. ”A very negative feeling is arising on the streets (of Muslim countries). We do not want a clash of civilisations.”

As Washington’s ‘most allied ally’ in the region, Pakistan is an active partner in the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan and already has to contend with rising domestic opposition to this policy.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who chaired the special emergency session of the 18 OIC members on Thursday, later rejected an offer form Israel for talks. Malaysia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel nor does its large Muslim neighbour Indonesia.

Muslim organizations, political parties and Malaysian newspapers have strongly condemned the bombing and demanded that the OIC move beyond rhetoric and take concrete action to end the bombing.

“The Hezbollah is not the terrorist organization that the United States, Israel and others claim it to be. The schools, clinics and other social welfare institutions that it runs and the assistance it provides to orphans and the poor make it much more than an armed group,” said the semi-official ‘New Straits Times’ daily in an editorial on Aug. 3. “It is also an influential political party with 14 parliamentary seats and one minister in the Lebanese Cabinet,” the newspaper said, urging OIC member states to move beyond rhetoric.

‘’In fact, in much of the Muslim world, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is gaining recognition from Sunnis as an Islamic warrior and defender of the faith,” the newspaper said. “If the Hezbollah resistance to Israeli aggression is proving to be the tie that is binding Lebanese from diverse religious beliefs and political allegiances, there is no reason why the members of the OIC should not be able to set aside their differences and speak and act as one,” the newspaper said.

“The dream of liberating Jerusalem is unfulfilled, and the Muslim world remains divided, weak and poor. Member countries of the OIC should now act on the burning of Beirut to rekindle the spirit of its formation,” it said.

The OIC meeting declared that continued bombing will push moderate Muslims towards extreme and violent means to seek justice.

“Boiling anger over the Israeli offensive in Lebanon could launch a new wave of terrorism,” OIC chairman Badawi said. He has written a letter to U.S. President George W Bush demanding that the White House intervene to stop Israel from bombing Lebanon. ‘’I hope Bush listens to us,” the official BERNAMA news agency quoted him as saying.

Worldwide Muslim anger over the carnage in Lebanon, where the death toll has topped 900, had forced the OIC to convene an emergency meeting to decide on a unified Islamic response.

Key members from the 57-nation bloc, including – which like Pakistan is an ally of the U.S. in its “war on terror” – attended. Also attending were delegates from Lebanon, Palestine, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Many Muslim individuals and organizations felt let down by the OIC meeting which they said should have moved beyond “urging” and “appealing.”

“The OIC should move away from the old paradigm and evolve into a military alliance to better defend Islam and the sovereignty of Muslim nations,” said Salahuddin Ayub, leader of the youth wing of the fundamentalist Pan Malaysian Islamic Party or PAS.

“OIC meets, issues statements and walks off but the crisis afflicting the Muslim world continues,” he told IPS. “They should also create an economic bloc like the EU to better represent and defend Muslim nations.”

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who still enjoys widespread support among Muslims, urged oil producing countries to enable an end to Israeli atrocities by stopping all transactions in U.S. dollars and British pounds.

He said the carnage by Israeli “terrorists” would not be possible without the support and collusion of the U.S. and Britain.

“Only a poverty-stricken U.S. will stop the killings and destruction and the U.S. will not be able to finance war if it is poor,” he said in a statement issued to coincide with the OIC emergency meeting.

“The world is once again forced to watch helplessly Israeli intransigence and brutish ways in Lebanon and Palestine,” he said. “I do not believe in futile condemnations because they will simply be ignored and it is time for the world to act.”