Positive optics

The 48th Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at Parliament House in Islamabad was certainly a big affair with positive vibes and encouraging optics. Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at the inaugural session of the PIC moot touched upon many significant issues that Muslim countries and populations are facing around the world. One of the major concerns the PM highlighted was how the OIC has failed both the Palestinians and the people of Kashmir, and how ‘Western countries have not taken the OIC seriously’. The PM was also right in pointing out that the main reason for this slight is the differences among the Muslim countries that Western countries are aware of. The injustices meted out to Muslims resounded throughout the OIC session; still no concrete outcome of the meeting was in sight. It is not hard to understand why over 1.5 billion Muslims find themselves on the receiving end. The ‘world community’ that mostly consists of Western powers does not take international law seriously and has had a tendency to apply it very selectively. In the case of Kashmir and Palestine, the international law is clear but its implementation is neither to be seen nor urged by the ‘world community’.

Even if the UNSC resolutions back the rights of the Kashmiris and Palestinians, the bigger international powers have been reluctant to enforce these resolutions – keeping their economic and strategic ties with India above the people of Occupied Kashmir and Palestine. The OIC also discussed the issue of Islamophobia against which the UN General Assembly has recently adopted a resolution, making March 15 an International Day to Combat Islamophobia. There is also the matter of human rights abuses within the member-states of the OIC, something that needs to finally be taken on by respective governments. When governments themselves violate human rights, they weaken their voice and cede the moral high ground to speak on such matters.

While Afghanistan featured prominently in the OIC meet, the foreign minister of Afghanistan was conspicuous by his absence. This was obviously due to the fact that till now no country has recognized the Taliban government as legitimate; Kabul instead sent a foreign ministry official for the OIC session. PM Imran Khan made an eloquent case for the lifting of sanctions on the Taliban government to avoid a humanitarian disaster there. The PM however failed to mention any of the human rights concerns that still cast a shadow over the Taliban regime. With an impressively detailed agenda, and 57 member-states participating at the ministerial or lower level in the two-day annual meeting, the outcome was expected to be more concrete than what has actually happened. Resolutions and a feel-good atmosphere may have worked years back but today they seem more meaningless in the face of increasing challenges. Unless the Muslim world is able to rectify its own problems first, there is not much hope for the way forward. From refugees to conflict to economic sanctions, the many issues discussed at the OIC moot need comprehensive plans – which are still missing.