Statement by H.E. Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, the Hon'ble Adviser for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Expatriate's Welfare and Overseas Employment at the 11th OIC Summit, Dakar on 11 March 2008

Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,

May I join others in congratulating you upon your stewardship of the proceedings. Also to thank you for the hospitality. All of us will carry back with us warm and delightful memories of time spent in this lovely city of Dakar.

May I also commend the Secretary General and his team for their steadfast and resolute support to all over aspirations within the framework of this organization.

Today the Ummah confronts numerous challenges. These are multipronged and daunting. We see around us a world gripped by an irrational fear of Islam. This 'Islamophobia' is without reason, or cause. This is unjust and unfair. It must cease. It is for us to do the needful, to counter these apprehensions, to explain to the world the positive values that Islam really stands for. We must demonstrate to them that we are for good governance, rule of law, freedom of expression, human rights, transparency in economic and financial spheres, compassion for the poor, equality of women and justice for all.

Our problems today are compounded by manifold adversities. There are issues that we have been grappling with since the inception of the OIC, but to little effect. Palestine provides an example. It continues to bleed. There is no end in sight to its sorrows. This is the core problem of the Middle East. Today Gazans continue to perish in Israeli hands. Palestinians are strong only when they are united. There can be no resolution to the problem of Palestine without a free, sovereign and independent States for their people with Jerusalem as its capital. We would urge upon the international community, especially the Quartet to exert pressure on Israel to bring this about.

There is Iraq and the Iraqis. Their excruciating suffering continue. An entire civilization is laid in near-ruins. Their resources are being drained. The Iraqis must take total control of their dusting in their own hands. Only there can they secure the political reconciliation, territorial integrity, security, peace and development so crucial to peace, development, reconstruction and stability of the Iraqi State and society.

In Afghanistan we continue to support President Karzai in his laudable endeavours to lift his people from the morass of strife and turmoil. We are delighted that the country has now joined our regional organization, SAARC. Bangladesh sees Afghanistan as a brother, friend and partner. Our civil society is also closely linked to the welfare of the Afghan people.

Lebanon, Syrian Golans, Kosovo - the list goes on. And so it will till such time as the Muslims of the world can forge unity among themselves and speak in one voice, till such time they can Muster the unity that can bring an end to their legion political torments.

Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,

Our organization, the OIC needs revamping. It needs to be reformed, reenergized, retooled and reinvigorated. We enthusiastically support the initiative to revise the Charter. We want to join the effort to refurbish its image. We anticipate that the expansion of activities of the Organization will be reflected in the new Charter. We need to reorganize ourselves to bring this body in line with contemporaneous times. We need to be better able to deal with the issues of the 21st century.

Climate Change is one such. We must protect the world from the effects of pollution, from the consequences of our own irresponsible actions. After Bali, we need to walk together on the road to Copenhagen in 2009. We need to work for the consensus on deeper and comprehensive outs on emissions of green-house gases. We need to cooperate to uphold the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility". We need to assert that those who leave smaller carbon footprints must be rewarded. Market mechanisms must be devised for that purpose.

Many among us are blasted with vast natural and financial resources. OIC could help devise methodologies that these can be used to break the claptrap of poverty that so many in the Ummah suffer from. Our manpower resources could be better organized to respond to our needs. The beauty of our Ummah is the intellectual acceptance of the preposition that the amelioration of the pains of some is the responsibility of all.

Ideas emanating from many of our OIC countries are helping transform positively the landscape of many developing countries. We have at least two of such being practiced in Bangladesh - micro-credit and non-formal education for women, leading to their emancipation of mainstreaming. We have ourselves profited immensely from these, as have many others of comparable standing. We want to share these "best practices" with our Islamic brethren everywhere and would be happy to have the OIC acting as a conduit.

To go beyond the rhetoric, and translate these lofty sentiments into practice, in our view it would be a good idea for the Chair to establish a Group of Eminent Persons from the Muslim world to evaluate our assets and capabilities in this regard and press them into the service of the Ummah. The call of the time is for modernization. We must respond effectively to it or risk withering away. Failure in this regard cannot be an option.

Our peoples deserve to relive the wondrous glory, which our forefathers had justly earned. And to which we can indeed claim to be successors.

I thank you all.