India strongly hit back at the 57-member Islamic nations group, saying it continued to be ‘hijacked by vested interests’
File image of security members standing next to flags of countries participating in the Executive Committee Meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). AFP
On Tuesday, India sharply reacted to comments made by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation {OIC} for its “misleading” comments in the wake of the hijab row, which erupted in Karnataka and has quickly spread to other parts of the country too.
India also rejected the OIC’s criticism of alleged harassment of Muslims in the country.
What is the OIC?
The OIC, formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an international organisation founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states.
It is reported to be the world’s second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations.
The OIC’s mission statement bills it as “the collective voice of the Muslim world” that works to “protect the interests of the Muslim world”.
The majority of its member states are Muslim-majority countries, while others have significant Muslim populations, including several African and South American countries.
While the 22 members of the Arab League are also part of the OIC, the organisation has several significant non-Arab member states, including Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.
It also has five observer members, including Russia and Thailand.
The organisation has permanent delegations to the UN and the European Union and its official languages are Arabic, English and French.
Why was OIC established?
The collective first met back in September 1969, a month after an arson attack inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque that destroyed part of the roof and the 800-year-old pulpit of Salahuddin, best known for recapturing Jerusalem from the Crusaders in the 12th century.
Representatives from 24 Muslim countries met in Morocco’s capital, Rabat, with an aim to establish a body that would promote cooperation across the Muslim world.
According to its charter, the OIC aims to preserve Islamic social and economic values; promote solidarity amongst member states; increase cooperation in social, economic, cultural, scientific, and political areas; uphold international peace and security; and advance education, particularly in the fields of science and technology.
India’s ties with OIC
In 2018, Bangladesh had suggested that India be granted observer status as 10 per cent of the world’s Muslims live here. However, this suggestion was not accepted by Pakistan.
In 2019, then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had attended the OIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Abu Dhabi as a ‘guest of honour’. The move was considered as a diplomatic victory for India as it took place in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.
Pakistan had opposed the invitation to Swaraj, and its Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi boycotted the plenary after the UAE turned down his demand to rescind the invitation.
What did the OIC say?
The OIC on Monday had expressed deep concern over what it said were “public calls for genocide of Muslims” at the Dharam Sansad in Haridwar last December, harassment of Muslim women on social media and a ban on headscarves for Muslim students in Karnataka.
OIC’s general secretariat had said in its statement that the “continued attacks targeting Muslims and their places of worship, the recent trend of anti-Muslim legislations in different states and rising incidents of violence against Muslims on flimsy pretexts…are indicative of the growing trend of Islamophobia”.
It called on the world community, especially UN mechanisms and Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, to take necessary measures, and called on India to ensure the safety and security of Muslims and to bring the “instigators and perpetrators of acts of violence and hate crimes against them to justice”.
India reacts
India called out the OIC for it comments and said they were ‘misleading’.
External affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said that the OIC continues to be “hijacked” by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India.
“Issues in India are considered and resolved in accordance with our constitutional framework and mechanisms, as well as democratic ethos and polity,” Bagchi said.
“The communal mindset of the OIC Secretariat does not allow for a proper appreciation of these realities. OIC continues to be hijacked by vested interests to further their nefarious propaganda against India,” he added.
“As a result, it has only harmed its own reputation,” he said.
OIC’s stance on Kashmir
Monday’s statement isn’t the first time that the OIC has called out India. The OIC has been generally supportive of Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir.
When the Centre revoked Article 370 in Kashmir in 2019, despite heavy lobbying from Pakistan, the OIC wasn’t very critical of the move.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE had then issued very nuanced statements. UAE ambassador to India Dr Ahmad Al Banna had expressed hope that the Article 370 decision would help improve the social and economic conditions in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, in 2018, the OIC General Secretariat had “expressed strong condemnation of the killing of innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces in Indian-occupied Kashmir”.
India had rejected that statement and said that the J&K is an “integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India”.
It had further reiterated that the grouping continues to allow itself to be used by a certain country “which has an abominable record on religious tolerance, radicalism and persecution of minorities”.
With inputs from agencies
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