OIC Chief says Islamophobia to figure high in Dakar Summit

Dakar – Rabi Al Awwal 02 1429/ March 10, 2008 – Muslim leaders will debate Islamophobia when they meet in Dakar, Senegal this week amid Muslim anger over a Danish cartoon insulting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and a Dutch film perceived as anti-Islamic. The 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will discuss the first report of a monitoring committee on Islamophobia at the conference, said the Secretary General of OIC Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. "We have to resolve the issue of Islamophobia through a committed political dialogue and a historical reconciliation between Islam and the West," he told AFP. The 11th OIC Summit will be held on March 13 and 14.

Prof. Ihsanoglu said the reprinting of the cartoon and the production of the documentary were "specifically designed to insult the most sacred symbols of Islam". OIC leaders "will be expected to take appropriate decisions against such acts of Islamophobia" which violate "international legal instruments that prohibit insult and offence of religious beliefs of others and cannot be condoned under the (banner) of freedom of expression," he said adding there is an urgent necessity for the international community to either strengthen the existing international legal instruments or enact new ones that would include preventive measures against insulting or offending religious values and sentiments.

"As regards the so-called plot to kill the Danish cartoonist ... there will be no hesitation on the part of the OIC general secretariat, when (the suspects') crime is established by the proper Danish judicial authorities, to condemn in the strongest terms the sinful and deplorable act of these individuals," Prof. Ihsanoglu observed.

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