Organization of the Islamic Conference
Abdullah al-Ahsan provides a detailed study of the OIC in a historical perspective. The idea of establishing an international organization consisting of Muslim countries 

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was submitted to a Summit Conference of twenty four Muslim majority states held in Rabat, Morocco, in 1969 in response to the Jewish attack on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The OIC was formed to fight until the Palestinians have gained their “rights to freely exercise sovereignty over their land and national resources”, and “establish their independent state in Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.”3 The OIC also resolved to achieve its goals by mobilizing all available resources of its member countries against Israel in the political, diplomatic military, economic, financial and cultural fields. 

Naziruddin Abdullah looks at the economic cooperation among Muslim countries under the aegis of the OIC. He studies the Islamic Commission for Economic, Cultural and Social Affairs which was created to look after the OIC- sponsored economic co-operation activities in various fields. Since then, in the agenda of Muslim countries, economic co-operation has occupied much of the OIC economic activities.4 However, he argues that not much trade is taking place among Muslim countries. 

According to Abdullah al-Ahsan, the strongest force inhibiting the success of the OIC is the idea of national sovereignty. The member states want to remain stronger than the mother organization because of their commitment to national sovereignty. Following the custom of modern international law based on the idea of national sovereignty, the OIC considers the problem of a particular nation within the ummah as a problem of the nation concerned.5 

3 Abdullah al-Ahsan, (Unpublished) “Organization of Islamic Conference- An United Nations of Muslim countries?” in Conference on globalism and Muslim ummah (Selangor: IIUM, 1993), 3.
4 Naziruddin Abdullah, “Bilateral trade linkages among Muslim countries Vis-à-Vis the rest of The World: Some empirical evidence,” IKIM Journal, Vol.12 No.2 (July/December 2004), 31. 

5 Abdullah al-Ahsan, “Cooperation for economic development among Muslim countries: The OIC experience,” IKIM Journal, Vol.5.No.1 (January/June 1997), 31. 

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Ahmet Davutoglu explains the reasons for the emergence of the OIC. According to him, the Islamic summit after the attack on the al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969 and the establishment of the OIC reflect a psycho-political change in the body politic of the ummah. For the first time since the end of the caliphate, the political elites of the Muslim world found that they needed to cooperate to strengthen the international position of the Muslim world.6 This process might also be considered as a reflection of a confrontational relationship between countries with political power in the international system and the Muslim world. After this stage, all political pressures and oppressions coming from the power-centers in relation to the political problems of the Muslim world-such as the case of Palestine - accelerated the impetus of this cooperative approach. 

The OIC, according to Abdul Rashid Moten, has also been concerned with “the escalation, the intensification of rivalries and conflicts in the world.”7 One of the goals of the OIC, it might be noted, is “to promote Islamic solidarity among member states and strengthen the struggle of all Muslims to safeguard their dignity, independence and national rights”. As yet, no concrete steps have been taken to transform these wishes into reality. It did convene a meeting of experts to formulate and recommend concrete measures for strengthening the security of the Islamic countries. The report submitted by the experts was approved at the fourteenth Conference of Foreign Ministers in 1983. The report was neither made public nor was any action seen to have been taken. There was also a proposal in 1981 for the OIC to establish an “Islamic office for military coordination with Palestine”. This was 

6 Ahmet Davutoglu, (Unpublished) “Strategic parameters and geopolitics of the Muslim world: New challenges in the Post-Cold War Era” in Conference on globalism and Muslim ummah (Selangor: IIUM, 1993), 161.
7 Abdul Rashid Moten, “Overcoming dependency: Defense and security in the Muslim world,” Journal of Objective Studies, Vol.7, No.1 (1995), 20. 

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followed three years later by the appointment of a retired Pakistani general to head the office. Nothing has been heard of since. 

Abdullah al-Ahsan concurs with the above observations. He argues that the OIC has never used the term “collective security” in expressing its concern for the security of the Muslim states nor has the OIC countries ever sided with their fellow member countries when they become victims of superpower aggression. This suggests that the OIC countries will only express their sympathy for the security of their fellow Muslim countries, but they are not prepared to sacrifice their lives and wealth for the sake of their Muslim brothers in other countries.8 

Amer al-Roubaie mentions that the rise of globalization and the end of the Cold War has brought Islam and the Muslims onto the global stage.9 The aggressive nature of the West as formulated in the propositions of the “Clash of Civilizations” and the “End of History” has further divided Muslims in response to Western challenges.10 As a group with divided ideologies and western orientations, the OIC continues to experience difficulties in agreeing on a unified platform for resolving internal problems as well as resisting external pressures. However, the adherence of the OIC to the Westphalian concept of state sovereignty has led to the avoidance of the discussions of domestic issues of member countries.11 

Salina Yusuff and Badlihisham Mohd Nasir observe that for the last three decades of the existence of the OIC, a lot has been discussed in academic and nonacademic circles. There were various discussions regarding the issue of Muslim 

8 Abdullah al-Ahsan, “Organization of the Islamic Conference - An united nations of Muslim countries?”, 201.
9 Amer al-Roubaie, “The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC): Nations in search of unity,” Al-Shajarah, Vol.8, No.1 (2003), 1. 

10 See Samuel P. Huntington, The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order (New York: Touchstone, 1997) and Francis Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man (New York: Aron Books, 1992).
11 Amer al-Roubaie, 1. 

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unity, Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries, the justification of the role of the OIC at the international level and the like.12 However, as Mir Zohair Husain points out, the OIC is hardly a vision of Pan-Islamism or of Islamic solidarity even though the organization has made serious and concerted strides towards Muslim unity culturally, intellectually, economically and politically over the last two decades, often through various subsidiaries or affiliated institutions.13 The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for example, was established in 1975 by the finance ministers of OIC member nations in an effort “to encourage economic and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities in accordance with the principle of the Islamic Shari’ah.”14 The IDB, abiding by Islamic law, forbids usury and provides interest-free loans, charging only a service fee. These loans are granted to the poorest member states so that they can attend to their most urgent socioeconomic problems. The IDB also encourages investments within and joint ventures among member states. Moreover the IDB’s special assistance account renders emergency financial aid and promotes Islamic education to Muslims living outside OIC member countries. 

Ismail Suny adds that in the current international level, the Organization of the Islamic Conference is of paramount importance. It exists amidst a situation where the global economic situation is replete with hope overcast by uncertainties. Despite signs of global economic recovery, growing interdependence among countries, and an increase of commitments to partnership in international economic relations, little or no tangible benefits have accrued to the developing countries to which most of the OIC member states belong.15 

12 Salina Binti Yusuff and Badlihisham Mohd Nasir, “OIC dan aspirasi dakwah [OIC and the inspiration of dakwah ],” Jurnal Yadim, No.6 (April 2005), 11.
13 Mir Zohair Husain, Global Islamic politics (United States: Priscilla McGeehon, 2003), 216.
14 Ibid., 218. 

15 Ismail Suny, The Organization of the Islamic Conference (Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 2000), ix. 7 

Members of the OIC are not united in political terms either. This is because, as Haider Mehdi points out, among the objective of the OIC are the “cooperation among Member States in the economic, social, cultural and scientific” fields, it determinedly disregards political cooperation.16 

Malaysia and OIC
There are scholarly works that deal with the linkage between Malaysia and the OIC. Hussin Mutalib stresses the contribution of Tengku Abdul Rahman by highlighting his initiative in pioneering numerous schemes that benefit the Muslim world.17 Many of the existing international Islamic institutions owe their genesis to his initiative, including the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic Solidarity Fund, the Islamic Foreign Ministers’ Conference, the King Faisal Foundation, the Islamic Research and News Agency, the World Islamic Missionary Organization and, as earlier indicated, the Regional Islamic Organization for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (RISEAP). 

It was undoubtedly in recognition of these contributions that two major international Muslim awards were conferred on him in 1983: the inaugural “Hijrah Award” from Pakistan and the “King Faisal Award” from Saudi Arabia. Abdullah al- Ahsan stresses that Malaysia under the leadership of Tengku Abdul Rahman as the OIC Secretary-General, got OIC involved in the settlement of the conflict between Bangladesh and Pakistan.18 As the Secretary General, he visited both parts of Pakistan in an effort to find a political solution to the conflict. Tengku Abdul Rahman was entrusted to mediate and establish contact with both Pakistani and Bangladeshi 

16 Quoted in Naveed S. Sheikh, The new politics of Islam: Pan-Islam foreign policy in a world of states (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 8.
17 Hussin Mutalib, Islam and ethnicity in Malay politics (Singapore: Oxford University Press Pte.Ltd., 

1990), 96.
18 Abdullah al-Ahsan, “Conflict among Muslim nation: Role of OIC in conflict resolution,” Intellectual 

Discourse, Vol.12, No. 2 (2004) 141. 

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authorities after Bangladesh officially became an independent country at the end of 1971 following the military defeat of the Pakistani armed forces in the Eastern wing of Pakistan. 

Abu Hassan Omar claims that Malaysia’s election to the various committees in the OIC proves that Malaysia enjoys the confidence of the OIC. It reflects the seriousness that Malaysia attaches to the collective efforts to ensure a better future for the Muslim ummah.19 Malaysia had successfully hosted the fifth Islamic Conference of Foreign Minister (ICFM) in Kuala Lumpur in 1974 and offered Kuala Lumpur as the venue for the 27th Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in June 2000.20 

According to Mohamad Abu Bakar, Muslim unity and Islamic solidarity became a popular theme in international relations among Muslim countries, and acquired special appeal following the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1967. According to him, throughout the seventies in particular, Malaysia was very much in the mainstream of international Islamic politics and was an active participant in the International Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers.21 Kuala Lumpur hosted the fifth meeting of the grouping. Invariably, Malaysia began to develop a pro-Islam foreign policy, with fraternity of faith becoming a popular point of reference in its approach to the problem of Muslim unity.