Reasserting International Islam: A Focus on the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Other Islamic Institutions

The title is an article by Saad S. Khan reviewed by Raza Afzal Faiz published in "Islamic Studies", Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer 2002), pp. 359-362. The following is an excerpt of the review.

OIC status

The Organization of the Islamic Conference () is the biggest intergovernmental body of the Islamic world. It has 57 Muslim states as its members with another three in observer capacity. It was established in 1969 when the Muslim governments met at Rabat to hold the first Islamic summit to express solidarity against the Zionist act of arson at the al-Aqs~ Mosque. From then on, it has gradually expanded both in scope and range of activities.

OIC today

Today, the Organization can boast of four principal organs. The triennial Islamic Summit is the top decision-making body. It has held nine regular and one extraordinary sessions so far. The tenth Islamic summit is scheduled for December 2003 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The next is the Islamic Foreign Ministers Conference, known as the ICFM, an annual feature of the Islamic Conference. So far 28 regular and 11 extraordinary ICFMs have been held. The third principal organ is the Islamic General Secretariat, presently located at Jeddah, "pending the liberation of Jerusalem" which will be the OIC's permanent seat. The present Secretary General, Abdul Waheed Belkaziz of Morocco, is the eighth person to head the ore Secretariat. The fourth and the last principal organ of the OIC, the Islamic International Court of Justice ([IC]), could not start functioning for want of the necessary number of ratifications from the Muslim States. In addition, there are around 44 subsidiary organizations under the OIC umbrella including permanent committees, specialized committees, specialized organs and affiliated institutions, etc. Some prominent examples are the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic News Agency, the Islamic Solidarity Fund, the Organization of Islamic Capitals, the Islamic Sports Federation, the al-Quds Committee and various Islamic universities.

With such an impressive set-up, why has the OIC not become the United Nations of the Muslim world? Why has it not resolved the various conflicts in the Muslim world? Why does it seem to be so impotent? A serious attempt has been made to deal with questions such as these in a new book by a young Pakistani scholar, Saad S. Khan. A momentous work, Reasserting International Islam is an addition to the stream of works about Islam and the modern political world. The book has, for the first time, filled in the lacuna in the world of documented knowledge about the largest intra• Islamic world body.

Not only that, for the first time the role and activities of all the OIC organs and even various other Islamic organizations outside the OIC circle such as the Rabitat al-'Alam al-Isl~mi and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) have been discussed. Compared to the earlier works on the subject, most of which are short monographs, the present volume is a comprehensive and highly researched work on international Islamic organizations. The book consists of three parts. The introductory chapter of the book sets the theme of the discussion by starting the debate on the Islamic concept of ummah. The author cites many writings on the subject to bring home the different connotations of the term with special reference to its use in the Qur'~n and the Hadith. The chapter also deals with the question as to whether the OIC is the modem-day replacement of the Islamic institution of Caliphate.

Part I

The part I of the book deals with the OIC -- its origins, its structure, its bureaucracy, its political history -- which includes an interesting chapter about the problems and weaknesses of the organization. The Part II of the book deals with 30 leading Islamic institutions of the Islamic world both within the OIC framework and outside it.

Concluding chapter of part II

The concluding chapter of part II is based on an assessment of the Islamic organizations, their current role and their future potential. This is the most interesting chapter where the author frankly expresses his opinion about the future of the ummah. He agrees that the OIC is not the United Nations of the Muslims, but avers that the significance of the OIC lies in the vast potential that it has, provided its weaknesses, as identified in the book, are removed. Saad Khan believes that the structure of Muslim organizations is so elaborate that it leaves not much to be desired but the need is to make this more responsive to the Muslim needs in the current times.

The last part

The last part of the book consists of annexures. It contains the OIC Charter, the Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, the final communiqu~s of all the Islamic Summit Conferences held so far and a number of charts showing the country-wise Muslim population in different parts of the world. This, coupled with a list of Abbreviations, an elaborate Glossary and a comprehensive Bibliography, enhance the value of the book. This third section, in fact, makes the book a required library item and a compulsory reference for anyone who wishes to embark on any serious study related to the modem Muslim world.

To gain an insight into the author's thinking, one is tempted to especially mention the chapters 6 and 8 in Part I of the volume under review. The author gives a political history, including the Palestine dispute, the Bosnian tragedy, the Iran-Iraq war, etc. The account is lucid and appealing. For instance, the author establishes the falsity of the view that the Muslim world had done nothing for the cause of Jerusalem. About the Iran-Iraq war, he narrates in detail the efforts by the Muslim ummah to bring about a cessation of hostilities and laments the fact that the two sides lost a great deal by not heeding to the OIC peace initiatives. He also narrates the true and heretofore hidden story of how the Muslim world saved Bosnia from extinction. The author also discusses the Islamic worldview on such major questions as "terrorism, "human rights" and "disarmament".

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 goes on to identify the major problems that have impaired the effectiveness of the Islamic Conference. The author establishes that the financial quagmire in which the Muslims had fallen was the biggest impediment to an effective OIC. The author then recounts various incidents showing, what he calls, the bloc-politics among the Muslim nations. He also tells us how many Muslim states compromised Islamic aims at the altar of petty national interests.

The book is a fruit of many years of research which deserves to be recommended to all interested in the phenomenon of Islamic revival. It brings a refreshing objectivity to the topic. It is a boon to the students and scholars of international Islam alike and will be of ample use to the policy-makers also.

The foreword written by John L. Esposito

The foreword of the book, written by John L. Esposito, a very well• known American scholar, adds to the value of the book. Regardless of what shape the concept of Islamic ummah takes in the future, Saad Khan's book will remain a required reading tor quite some time.