Muslim leaders open summit amid new tensions

Muslim leaders open summit amid new tensions
Mar 13, 2008

DAKAR (AFP) — Leaders from the world's biggest Muslim forum started a summit here Thursday that was overshadowed by conflicts and new tensions that have stricken member nations.

The 11th Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit is meant to concentrate on a campaign against 'Islamophobia' in the West and efforts to reform the group and increase solidarity between its 57 members.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a key figure at the summit as he confronts tensions with the United States over its nuclear programme.

The two day meeting started with Malaysia handing over the presidency of the 57 member organisation to Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, host of the summit which was twice postponed because of construction delays.

In a message read at the meeting, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who cancelled his attendance because of domestic political troubles, called for the OIC to become more involved in efforts to secure "world peace".

Conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, and Somalia have all been key talking points in the buildup to the summit, diverting attention from the OIC leadership's efforts to reform the body and its campaign against 'Islamophobia' -- attacks and threats against Muslims and what it considers insults against the Islamic faith in the West.

Several leaders have called for a major campaign against Islam's negative image in the West, particularly since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The OIC also wants western nations to clamp down harder on what it considers anti-Islamic gestures such as the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark and the looming release of an anti-Islamic film by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

The OIC was created in 1969 and its charter dates from 1972. OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said before the meeting that the summit would be a "turning point" because of the agreement to change its charter.

"The role of OIC as not only representative of these 57 countries, but as the spokesman of the Muslim world, the spokesman of the inspiration of the Islamic Ummah (community), has been increasing and expanding," said Ihsanoglu