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JEDDAH, 7 December 2005 — There are two important international events taking place this month in which Islamic countries are participating. One event is political while the other is economic. The Third Extraordinary OIC Summit is the political event; it precedes the economic one, the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference (HKMC).
There is a strong link between the two events in that the outcome of the OIC summit might influence the future of Muslim countries in the World Trade Organization. Without doing a political analysis, it is possible to understand the nature and the importance of the OIC summit by being aware of the challenges that WTO imposes on the economic and political future of Islamic countries. In other words, to understand the political it is essential to understand the economical.
Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries face significant challenges in the WTO because its rules impose limitations on the interaction of Islamic member countries. The major principle affecting the presence of Muslim countries in the WTO is trading without discrimination. Under WTO most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment, a country cannot discriminate between its trading partners by granting some nations special favors (such as lower tariffs) and not granting them to others. According to this principle, Muslim countries that are WTO members cannot grant each other special favors. Moreover, Muslim countries should treat all member nations equally; this of course includes Israel, which many Muslim countries boycott. Forming a regional trade agreement, however, between Muslim countries might solve the problem of the (MFN) treatment. Under Article 24 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade — GATT was the forerunner of WTO — countries are allowed to form regional trading arrangements as a special exception even though this might sometimes violate WTO's principle of equal treatment.
The formation of a Muslim multilateral trading bloc as an adjunct to OIC membership could pave the way for those Muslim countries not already WTO members to join the organization. Countries that are not WTO members such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Libya could be easily absorbed into the multilateral trading system once they became part of an Islamic regional agreement. If the OIC were an internationally effective body, it could provide solid ground for negotiating WTO membership for non-member Muslim countries. It would thus be easier to negotiate with one body instead of having to engage in bilateral negotiations with several different states. Moreover, if the non-member countries are part of a free trade agreement with WTO member countries, then the benefit to all WTO members is obvious. In such a case, the tariffs imposed by the non-members will be more or less on a par with those of WTO members so that accession would not create problems in that area. Secondly, most OIC countries are members of WTO and they could exert pressure within the organization for the admission of non-members.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Muslim leaders realize the importance of reinventing the OIC as a political and economic organization.
At the present extraordinary summit, OIC countries are considering the establishment of a common market. This is evidence that they have realized the power they could exert on the WTO if they were a unified market. The announcement by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal that increasing trade and economic integration between Islamic countries are major issues at the summit testifies to their importance. Currently, inter-Muslim trade accounts for only 13 percent of their total trade and the aim is to increase this figure as much as possible.
The strength of the European Union comes primarily from its being a common market; by forming an Islamic common market, the OIC's role in a multilateral trading bloc could enhance the standing of its member countries already in the WTO. The attendance of the newly elected Iranian president and the announcement of Libya's participation in the summit are strong indications that leaders have finally been able to abandon their disputes in order to pursue their economic and political interests.
Focus on 10-Year Action Plan
JEDDAH, 7 December 2005 — Nearly 40 foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference met in Jeddah yesterday to finalize the agenda of a two-day extraordinary summit that opens in Makkah today.
The ministerial conference was held at the Conference Palace in Jeddah's upmarket Al-Hamra district amid some of the tightest security measures ever seen in the Kingdom. All roads leading to the palace were closed to the public, with traffic diverted due to security concerns. From early in the morning, cars with tinted glass streamed toward the palace carrying foreign ministers of the OIC's various Muslim nations and non-Muslim member states.
Before the meeting began, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal welcomed the delegates and said Saudi Arabia was proud to host them. He said the OIC should seek to counter attacks on Islam from enemies abroad and also from those within who hold deviant ideologies.
Saud said it was up to the OIC countries to correct the image of Islam and defend Islam's principles through dialogue. He reiterated the views of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah that the summit is a historic opportunity and the resolutions of the summit should be a turning point in the history of the Muslim world.
OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu also welcomed the foreign ministers. He said that the 10-year action plan of the OIC, to be agreed upon during the summit, would be a road map for common Islamic action. The plan was meant to be a blueprint for confronting the massive challenges Muslims face in political, economic, cultural and scientific fields.
The focus of the preparatory meeting was on four documents to be approved by the heads of the OIC countries during the Makkah summit. The first document, an update on the activities of the OIC since its last meeting, was immediately passed without contention. It was with the second document that the real work began.
The second document, a 10-year strategic action plan, is meant to confront the challenges faced by the OIC countries. Throughout the day the delegates to the preparatory meeting poured over the document's text, paragraph by paragraph, in minute detail. The strategic plan is based on the recommendations of Muslim scholars and intellectuals who met in Makkah in September.
After hours without word of the proceedings, OIC spokesman Atta Mannan stepped out from the meeting to advise the assembled reporters that the deliberations would most certainly be continuing until late in the night. He said the strategic plan was quite exhaustive, dealing with issues central to politics, economics, science, culture and trade in the OIC nations. The plan discusses the means of tackling Islamophobia, how to deal with the state of minorities in non-OIC states, ways to initiate dialogue with the outside world, methods to improve the image of Islam and tactics to seize the initiative from the deviants and terrorists.
Mannan asserted that the time being taken by the delegates to consider the plan boded well for its success. He believes that the intense interest in the details of the 10-year plan indicates the seriousness being given to the summit by the entire Muslim world.
He said that from the discussions taking place inside the Conference Palace, it was evident the delegates realized that the Muslim world had huge expectations from these meetings. "The fact that the delegates are giving so much attention to the proposals shows they don't just want to sign on the dotted lines" as was sometimes the case at previous summits, he said.
"The delegates want to ensure that the proposals they are approving for their heads of government to see are truly implementable and practical," said Mannan. It is true that in the past the OIC made many declarations that went unheeded.
Another important document being prepared for approval yesterday was the Makkah Declaration, which was to be taken up after the delegates finalized the action plan. The Makkah Declaration presents the general view of the current global situation and the situation in OIC countries as well as the common aspirations and hopes of the Muslim world.
The final item that was to be agreed upon at the ministerial meeting was the drafting of the final communiqué. Mannan said that a select committee from among the member states had been entrusted with the task of drafting this document.
Expectations High
JEDDAH, 7 December 2005 — There are high expectations about the outcome of the two-day extraordinary summit of Islamic nations that opens in the holy city of Makkah today.
A cross-section of people in Saudi Arabia said the summit reminded them of the conference in 1969 when King Faisal brought together leaders of all Muslim nations and gave them a clear direction.
"Yes, the times have changed and we are in a far worse situation than what existed in 1969," admitted Samir Al-Ghamdi, a student of engineering at King Abdul Aziz University. "The world has turned upside down in the intervening period. When the Organization of the Islamic Conference came into being in 1969 it was a bipolar world," he pointed out. "We are in a unipolar world where the only superpower has almost untrammeled power to effect changes at whim," he added, hinting at American intervention in Muslim states.
Dr. Muhammad ibn Nasser Al-Khozaim, deputy chief of the Presidency for Haram Mosque Affairs, said he wished every success for the summit, which is held in the right place at the right time.
"I pray to the Almighty that He may help OIC leaders to achieve the noble objectives of this summit," he told Arab News.
Dr. Abubakar Ahmed Baqader, adviser to the information minister, commended Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for taking the initiative to hold the summit. "I'm proud of him," he added.
He said the 10-year strategic plan was prepared by a group of scholars and intellectuals who knew the problems of the Ummah and who wanted to improve its situation.
Abdul Wahab Al-Rajhi, chairman of Al-Rajhi group, urged the summit leaders to implement their resolutions. "We hope the summit will have a positive effect on UN resolutions and in restoring the Ummah's world position," he told Arab News.
K.U. Iqbal, an Asian expatriate, said the OIC has not been able to achieve anything tangible in the 36 years of its existence. "The lack of unity among the member states has prevented the organization from implementing its resolutions. One of the problems it is facing is the fact that the organization is being used for propaganda purposes by the member states which wish to score a political point over their adversaries," he said.
Muneef Ali Mirza, marketing manager of a communications firm, said it is a matter of shame that the combined GDP of the Muslim world constitutes just five percent of the world GDP. The total GDP of the 56 member countries stands at $1,400 billion, while that of Japan alone is $4,500 billion.
"Politicizing the OIC and using it as a tool for promoting vested interests will get the Muslim Ummah nowhere," he added.
Sabrina Hassan, a Syrian who works in a Jeddah hospital, said she was happy that empowerment of women was on top of this summit's agenda. "We have been ignored all this while. We have not been given the kind of place that we deserve. Muslim women are in a good position to counter the attack on Islam from within and without," she said.
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