Islamic summit calls for moderation
Leaders and ministers of more than 50 Muslim countries urged their nations to fight terrorism and called for moderation within Islam, as they opened a summit yesterday in a palace overlooking Islam’s holiest shrine.
“We do not have the luxury of blaming others for our own problems. It is high time we addressed our national and regional problems with courage, sincerity and openness,” said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
“We should fight terrorism by dealing with its roots and causes, whether committed by individuals, groups or states,” Ihsanoglu said. “Terrorism is a crime that every Muslim should fight.”
While discussions during the two-day summit are expected to focus on terrorism, delegates will also seek to forge a plan to reform the 57-member organisation in a bid to give it more clout in international affairs.
“The future of humanity depends on this part of the world,” Ihsanoglu said. “What is going on in the Islamic world has dire consequences elsewhere.”
“Lack of moderation is one of the main sources of instability and chaos in the modern world,” he said, stressing the need to combat poverty, illiteracy and corruption in the Muslim world.
“When these issues are not addressed properly by legitimate means, they are used as an excuse to push for extreme agendas,” he said.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, speaking at the opening session, also called for moderation.
“Islamic unity can’t be achieved by the spilling of blood, as deviant people claim by their dark ideas,” he said.
The leaders of about 40 countries were participating in the meeting, with the remaining OIC members represented by ministers. Among noted absentees were Syrian President Bashar Assad, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika - hospitalised in France – and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Delegates said in their discussions yesterday that the leaders discussed a position paper by Ihsanoglu on restructuring the 36-year-old organisation over the next ten years to give it a more active role in international affairs.
The paper suggests a wide-ranging reforms in the organisation including taking a bigger role in Islamic jurisdiction. Many Muslims complain that extremist clergy have a free hand in issuing Fatwas, or religious edicts, with some of them go as far as declaring rival Muslims as infidels.
“The subject that should have priority over all these subjects is the consensus among us as Muslims on who is a Muslim and on the condition of Ifta, (edict making),” Jordan’s King Abdullah II told the summit.
“The absence of consensus on these two issues has led to divisions and differences, accusations of apostasy and internecine fighting,” the Jordanian monarch said.
Ihsanoglu also is seeking to revamp the OIC along the lines of the European Union or United Nations in a bid to give its members more power. The 57-nation group has had only an advisory role, with annual summits that often serve as little more than a talking shop.
Delegates at yesterday’s meeting said Saudi Arabia was proposing a “Mecca Declaration” to be endorsed by the leaders as a blueprint for moderation by Muslim countries.
The declaration said Muslims felt “a dire need to confront all those who call for sedition, deviations and illusions. Their ideas are based on ignorance, isolation, hatred and bloodletting.”
Yesterday’s meetings were held at the Safa Palace, adjacent to the Grand Mosque. Saudi security forces and soldiers of the Royal Guard imposed tight security around the conference venue, closing most of the streets to the holy mosque.
Still, tens of thousands of pilgrims poured into Islam’s most holy site to perform their rituals, know as Omra, or minor pilgrimage.
The summit was to continue today.
