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December 8, 2005
Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah Laments Islamic Extremism at OIC Summit
The king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah addressed a meeting in Mecca of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Wednesday, at the start of a two-day meeting addressing the problems facing Islam.
According to Lebanon's Daily Star, the monarch, who is Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, said that the world's 1 billion Muslims were weak and divided.
"It bleeds the heart of a believer to see how this glorious civilization has fallen from the height of glory to the ravine of frailty and how its thoughts were hijacked by devilish and criminal gangs that spread havoc on earth," he said.
He said that the Islamic jurisprudence arm of the OIC should "fulfill its historic role of combating extremism."
The chairman of the OIC, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who is an Egyptian-born Turk, stated "We don't have the luxury of blaming others for our own problems.
"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. The future of humanity depends on this part of the world."
According to Gulf Daily, Abdullah Ahmad Badaawi, the Malaysian Prime minister, said Muslims across the globe were in "disunity and discord" which were worse than in any period in Islam's 1400 years of history.
A 10-year plan was presented at the summit, which called for better education, quicker economic development and trade. Also included was the promotion of religious moderation, and the strengthening of the rights of Muslim women.
According to the China People's Daily a Russian delegation will be present at the OIC summit today. Russia has 20 million Muslims. This group will include the Chief Mufti of Tatarstan, Gusman-hazrat, who was one of the individuals to approve the statement condemning "Christian iconography" in Russia's National Coat of Arms, which we described on Monday and yesterday.
UPDATE: The opinions voiced above by the Malaysian Prime Minister, about Islam being in a state of crisis, were picked up as the final conclusions of the summit. The BBC stated that the leaders of the 57 nations "have ended their summit with a warning that the Islamic world is in crisis because of the threat posed by terrorism."
They write that the OIC statement urges decisive action to fight "deviant ideas".
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 8, 2005 2:09 AM
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