The Kuala Lumpur Summit held 18-21 December represents a seismic shift in the Muslim world towards developing a new effective Muslim leadership body to complement the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, to address the great issues facing the Ummah.
Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed, and the key leaders who attended, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani must be commended for this timely initiative strengthening Ummatic unity.
The Summit backdrop is major crises challenging the Ummah, particularly resulting from Saudi-Iran conflict that weakens the Muslim world and allows protagonists to play havoc with our well-being: worst refugee crisis since World War 2, parallel moves against Muslim minorities in China, India and Myanmar and Israel’s disgraceful treatment of Palestinians.
OIC’s failure to address these necessitates its augmentation by an action-oriented body with teeth to resolve serious issues.
Erdogan called for reforming the OIC, stating the biggest problem is “the issue of implementation.”
Reportedly, participants discussed a strategic development plan based on “the economic independence of the Muslim world and an international monetary system free of foreign hegemony” and a virtual currency to replace the dollar.
Saudi Arabia was invited but declined to attend. Pakistan also declined to attend presumably under Saudi pressure.
Criticism by OIC Secretary, Yousef al-Othaimeen, is off-mark in saying “such gatherings would weaken Islam” and ‘divide the Muslims.”
In reality, certain Gulf countries especially Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran, hold responsibility for both weakening the Muslim world and dividing it.
Mahathir said however, that the Summit is not to isolate anyone but to address problems facing the Islamic world: “Understanding the problems and their causes may enlighten us on ways to overcome or mitigate disasters that have befallen the Ummah.”
The Saudi royal elite for generations shows excessive homage to ally, the United States – to the extent that their agency, Muslim World League, as this writer is reliably informed, needs prior US approval for disbursement of funds worldwide.
Similarly, Saudi oil income from the US cannot be freely recouped, which explains why Saudi is highest spender on (US) military arms.
The US under zionist lobby influence since end of the Cold War, is implicated in massive destruction of the Muslim states of Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya, and in promoting Saudi Arabian-Iran conflict.
The object was not primarily ‘Oil’ but to weaken any obstacle to Israel’s expansion.
The Saudis deserve accolades for their excellent facilities provided for Muslim pilgrims.
Saudi leadership, however, does not reflect the august role of khadiman al-haramain, but rather extremely poor judgement leading to the Yemeni civil war, Khashoggi murder debacle, isolation of Qatar, and cosying up to Israel.
King Salman condoned China’s treatment of the embattled Uighurs.
Prince Walid was shareholder of Islamophobic News Limited.
Saudi-UAE leaders and scholars attacked democracy’s legitimacy, which respected Islamic scholars demonstrate convincingly is Islamic.
Saudi wishes acceptance as defacto leader of the Ummah but fails due to subjugation by America and poor leadership.
This situation justifies development of the new body to which Saudis can contribute but not dominate.
Summit leaders should move smartly to establish a powerful politically independent grouping with a Secretariat and identify priority actions.
These could range from engendering peace in Somalia, Libya, and Yemen; stimulating inter-Muslim trade and research, to exchanging defence technologies.
Pakistan needs loan refunding to recapture national sovereignty and participate.
Peaceful reconciliation should be achieved between Saudi-UAE and Qatar, and between the Gulf countries and Iran, in line with bringing peace between contending brothers (al-Qur’an 49:10).
Time and time again there have been attempts to subvert Islam, not only from its obvious enemies, but also from false friends inside the Ummah. When the Muslims begin to awaken the old corrupt order is challenged and inshallah this gathering is a sign that the change is beginning.
Islam is about justice and compassion not about oil and snuggling up to enemies of the Ummah for worldy benefit. The whole world is seeing what is happening and drawing conclusions. That is why we can expect Muslim support for sound leadership to grow and hostility and subversion from those who fear it to also increase.
trump and co cannot boss around Iran if her neighbours do not facilitate it. Sadly some of her neighbours have forgotten the concept of Ummah and their instigation have emboldened the mischief-makers. Assassinating a military leader of a sovereign country and the concocted lies they spread cannot be any more brazen.Pompei’s shameless lie about ‘dancing in the street’ and the massive funeral procession that took place is a good example of official fake news regardless.
Let us hope yesterday’s blunt, pre-determined murder of 7 Muslims, including General Sulaimani, at Iraq Airport, will unite the Ummah across artificial State boundaries and sectarian divide.
The Summit conclusions, as presented by this article, states the facts without sugar-coating. It is critical that we understand our illness before a proper treatment can be administered. So, what the Summit has done is best first step. But the wolves are not going to sit and watch. They may have already hurried up and prepared all the necessary steps to frustrate and thwart the actions proposed by the Summit. We know what they did when Qaddafi wanted to change the monetary system.
I want to have a dream that finally, our Muslim nations are waking up. Finally we are going to tell the US and other western powers “We are not going to allow you to launch missiles and the Mother of All destructive bombs against Muslim countries at will”, “We are not going to allow you to invade Muslims countries at will”, “We are not going to pay you ransom by being forced to purchase billion dollar murderous and ultimately useless, weapons, so, you can keep our despotic rulers in power” and so on.
Muslims’ dream of having a Khalifa may remain just a dream, but this Summit is the next best thing one can think of.
Meer Sahib’s dream should become a reality as certain leading Muslim nations are awakening to the Ummah’s peril. In view of the unacceptable killing of seven Iranians including General Sulaimani by US Forces and retaliation by Iranian forces in Iraq, it is essential for leaders of prominent Muslim countries to make a joint declaration to the US Government that the Middle East is suffering enough from US policies and attacks and that further hostile actions are totally unacceptable. President Trump and the US must return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal framework agreement, which controlled Iran’s nuclear developments and allowed peace to break out. If the US continues its current line of warlike actions it will be confirmed as a tyrant terrorist power, leading to its own demise and pain for its own citizens, which is the proven historical trajectory for such countries.
Muslim governments and leaders must encourage their people of various sects and Beliefs to iive together in harmony and not exploit the differences for political point scoring. An internal strife is an external opportunity for mischief makers and resources thieves often masquerading as peace keepers like trump & co !