#Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

[kyreniacommentator]

Ersin Tatar addressed the 15th Session of Islamic Summit Conference

[cartoonmirror]

OIC

[shut-up-rabert]

OIC when

Indians in Kashmir:

Taliban just banned university education for women:

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Dawn is Pakistani Private Media]

The heinous killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh risks tipping the Middle East into “wider conflict”, the chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) told a meeting on Wednesday.

The comments from Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara came as a senior Iranian official said during the meeting that the Islamic republic would need to defend itself from Israel, which it blames for Haniyeh’s death last week in Tehran.

Iranian and Palestinian officials called for Wed­nesday’s gathering of the 57-member OIC in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, saying the body needed to respond to the killing of the Hamas leader.[...]

Haniyeh’s killing “will not quell the Palestinian cause but rather it amplifies it, underscoring the urgency for justice and human rights for the Pales­tinian people”, [Tangara] said. “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of nation states are fundamental principles underpinning the international order.

“Respecting these principles has profound implications and their violation equally carries significant consequences.”[...]

“Currently, in the absence of any appropriate action by the (UN) Security Council against the aggressions and violations of the Israeli regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to use its inherent right to legitimate defence against the aggressions of this regime,” Ali Bagheri, Iran’s acting foreign minister, told the OIC.

[NewStraitsTimes is Malaysian Private Media]

Malaysia has proposed four key measures to support the Palestinian cause, including the establishment of a group of eminent persons tasked with assessing and identifying measures to implement the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) Advisory Opinion.[...]

He said the measures emphasised the need to expand global support for Palestine, leveraging the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) rulings and the unity achieved by Palestinian factions through the Beijing Declaration.

"Such measures should focus on universal jurisdiction and ensure the consistent application of international law," he stated during the meeting in Jeddah, yesterday.

Second, Malaysia called for the reinstatement of the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid.

The primary task of this committee would be to halt the illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories (OPT) by Israel and to address the apartheid policies imposed on Palestinians, he added.

Third, Malaysia proposed that the OIC, in collaboration with like-minded countries, request a resumed session of the 10th Emergency Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the Issue of Palestine.

"This suggestion is to discuss the means and ways to implement or "give effect" to the ICJ's Advisory Opinion.

"Finally, we should extend our undivided support and fully assist, in the rebuilding of the Palestinian economy and livelihood post-conflict. This is a key step that would ease their return to normalcy," Mohamad said.

Following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, who also led Hamas' political bureau, Malaysia called for a concerted effort to counter Israeli propaganda and misinformation.

"Malaysia has always been a strong advocate for peace and stability. As much as we condemn the assassination, we urge all parties to restraint, to avoid escalating the situation into a regional and global crisis.

"The attack in Tehran could well be an attempt to derail the ongoing peace negotiations in the Middle East.

"We should not fall into their trap. Cool heads must prevail. We should support the continuation of the peace process to be resolved at the negotiating table. Diplomacy is the way to go," he noted.[...]

According to [Turkish State Media] Anadolu Agency (AA), the world body also urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to impose an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire on Israeli aggression and "ensure adequate and sustainable access to humanitarian aid throughout Gaza Strip."

7 Aug 24

[thoughtlessarse]

The UN Human Rights Council has demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 people. The resolution – which passed with 28 of the council’s 47 member states voting in favour, six opposed and 13 abstaining – marked the first time the United Nations top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war to beset the besieged Palestinian territory. The strongly worded text called on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel… to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”. It stressed that the International Court of Justice ruled in January “that there is a plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, slammed the resolution as “a stain for the Human Rights Council and for the UN as a whole”. The resolution was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states except Albania, and also called for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance”.

continue reading

[sepedarodatiga]

Gaza: Indonesia condemns Israeli attack on Indonesian Hospital - ANTARA News

Currently, Marsudi is in Beijing, China, along with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, and the secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The visit to Beijing is aimed at drumming up support from the permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the provision of humanitarian assistance without hindrance.

China is one of the permanent members of the UNSC besides the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France.

After China, the foreign ministers of the OIC will fly to Moscow to secure its support.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

In response to the most recent Quran-burning incident in Sweden, where an Iraqi immigrant burned the religious book in front of a mosque in Stockholm last June, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on July 12th on religious hatred, condemning the acts of burning the Islamic holy book in Sweden.

UN: Quran burning is hate speech designed to incite https://t.co/tdyfQyjd4j pic.twitter.com/9KTGTFqyvT — The Guardian Nigeria (@GuardianNigeria) July 12, 2023

Introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the resolution urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to draft a report on religious hatred and called on countries to review their laws and close legal loopholes that may "impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred."

The resolution was highly divisive since several states, primarily Western countries, decided not to back the proposal due to fears that it might infringe on freedom of speech and expression. Still, that did not prevent the human rights body from adopting the resolution. Among the council’s 47 members, 28 voted in favor of the resolution, 12 voted against it, and 7 chose to abstain.

Following a Quran burning in Sweden, the @UN passed a resolution calling on countries to “prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred.” The US and EU—rightly in my mind—voted against the resolution as a violation of freedom of expression. https://t.co/B0MaFz8u4h pic.twitter.com/58Dub2ynju — Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) July 13, 2023

Several countries that voted to adopt the resolution included Muslim-majority countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. The 12 countries that voted against it included the United States, the United Kingdom, and members of the European Union. While Western countries condemned the recent Quran-burning act in Sweden, they argued that the resolution would more likely safeguard religious symbols than human rights.

The resolution also came after a debate on issues of religious protection shortly after the Quran-burning incident in Sweden on July 11th, which was held upon Pakistan’s request. Pakistan and other countries said "the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by the recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries” moved them to act.

Can't Allah fight for himself ? — Wormwood (@__init__kwargs) July 4, 2023

The outcome of the resolution showed the power of OIC-member states within the council, the only global body made up of governments to protect human rights all over the world and also marks a significant blow to the West and its allies on the issue, with the director of the Geneva-based Universal Rights Group Marc Limon saying that "the West is in full retreat at the Human Rights Council” and adding that "they're increasingly losing support and losing the argument."

It’s just a book. Grow up. — ASH:Mike Darwin (@darwin_ash) July 4, 2023

Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Khalil Hashmi, also criticized the West and accused them of "lip service" to their commitment to preventing religious hatred, adding that “they lack [the] political, legal and moral courage to condemn this act, and it was the minimum that the Council could have expected from them."

As the special session went underway, which is the second of the three annual sessions at the UNHRC that will run until July 14th, Austrian lawyer Volker Türk, who currently serves as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that “speech and inflammatory acts against Muslims, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and actions and speech that target Christians — or minority groups such as Ahmadis, Baha'is or Yazidis — are manifestations of utter disrespect. They are offensive, irresponsible, and wrong."

After burning down Paris they still believe they are victims. — CoolNambiar (@CoolNambiar) July 4, 2023

He also added that "every national limit on the greater right of free speech and free expression of opinion must be so formulated so that its only task, its only outcome, can be the protection of the individual — and not the protection of religious doctrines from critical analysis."

--

For reference:

==

This is what happens when you normalize and reward victimhood culture. Even a murderous political ideology of world domination can pretend to be the injured party.

The United Nation is fucking useless.

Your religion's rules apply to you and nobody else.

[beardedmrbean]

The Danish government has proposed a ban on setting the Quran alight in public after a series of burnings led to uproar in Muslim countries.

Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said such burnings harmed Denmark and risked the safety of Danes.

The planned law will make improper treatment of the Quran or Bible a criminal offence punishable by a fine and jail sentence of up to two years.

The centre-right government said it wanted to send a signal to the world.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Denmark had witnessed 170 demonstrations in recent weeks, including the burning of copies of the Quran in front of foreign embassies.

Denmark's PET intelligence service has warned that the latest incidents have intensified the terrorist threat.

Neighbouring Sweden has also seen a series of Quran burnings and its security service has warned of a worsening security situation. In July, the Swedish embassy in Iraq was set alight by protesters.

But both Denmark and Sweden have hesitated to respond to the burnings because of their liberal laws on freedom of expression. Sweden scrapped its blasphemy laws in the 1970s.

Copenhagen decided to move after further Quran burnings at the end of July in Denmark and Sweden. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on its members to take appropriate action against countries where the Quran was being desecrated.

The justice minister was adamant the proposed change in the law was not targeting verbal or written expressions or satirical drawings. But he said burning religious texts served no other purpose than creating division and hatred.

"It is a cornerstone of our democracy that you have the right to express yourself," said Deputy Prime Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen. "You also have to behave properly."

Denmark could not stand idly by when such actions had negative consequences for its security, he added.

Sweden's prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said Stockholm would not take the same step as its neighbour, because that would probably require amending the constitution.

Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told reporters that a decision to review its public order law was the right move. The government wants to change the law to ban gatherings that threaten Sweden's public security.

Ministers in Denmark intend to propose changes to the law on 1 September and have them passed by parliament before the end of the year.

The ban is expected to be added to a section of the criminal code that bans public insult of a foreign state, its flag or other symbol.

[mariacallous]

It’s a funny old business, being a liberal democracy. You’ve painstakingly built a well-functioning society where the government works efficiently and citizens have rights and responsibilities. Then a few individuals misuse those rights in a way that offends large numbers of people, and to divert their own citizens’ attention, foreign rulers embark on a hate campaign against you.

That’s what’s happening to Sweden, whose application to NATO has become the target of a sinister proxy conflict that has nothing to do with NATO but a great deal with autocrats such as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And it’s mixture of misery that risks hitting other liberal democracies, too. Indeed, some have already been hit. After the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, protesters attacked Danish and other Western embassies abroad, and even targeted churches. And in January 2015, Islamist terrorists killed 12 people and injured 11 at the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had also published the cartoons.

“The Swedish government should know that supporting criminals against the world of Islam is equivalent to going into battle-array for war,” Khamenei declared in a statement last Saturday, in an echo of the language his predecessor used in a fatwa against the novelist Salman Rushdie more than three decades ago.

One might have thought that Iran’s supreme leader would be busy trying to discern how his own country should govern itself, seeing that women and some men are conducting surprisingly widespread and tenacious protests against Khamenei’s regime. Not so. Indeed, the two provocateurs (Danish Swedish career demagogue Rasmus Paludan and an Iraqi refugee named Salwan Momika) who have burned the Quran in Sweden have presented the Iranian leader with an opportunity to deflect attention from his domestic woes, and he has energetically seized it.

“The duty of that [Swedish] government is to hand over the perpetrator to the judicial systems of Islamic countries,” the Iranian leader said. The perpetrator referred to by Khamenei appears to be Momika, who burned a Quran in Stockholm last month.

In Iraq, the government—battling citizen unhappiness over food prices—also seems eager to turn the attention to Sweden. On July 20, in anticipation of another Quran burning announced by Momika, an Iraqi mob stormed Sweden’s Baghdad embassy and set it alight. But instead of apologizing for its inability to protect foreign embassies on Iraqi soil, the Iraqi government expelled Sweden’s ambassador and is reported to have revoked work permits for the telecom company Ericsson in the country. The embassy had to be evacuated.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt issued complaints. The Iranian and Iraqi foreign ministries then tried to get other Muslim countries to convene an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to “discuss the repercussions of insulting the Holy Quran and confronting the phenomenon of Islamophobia around the world”—and the OIC agreed to do so. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, weighed in from Beirut, calling for the expulsion of Sweden’s ambassador to Lebanon. It didn’t matter to them that the Swedish police have twice denied permission for protests that ended up featuring Quran burnings and twice had the decision overturned by the courts. (In the end, the July Quran desecration, also carried out by Momika, didn’t involve the book being burned; instead, he kicked it.)

It also doesn’t seem to matter to the foreign leaders and personalities stirring up anger and violence against Sweden that they’re spreading disinformation. The Swedish police don’t issue permits for Quran burnings: They issue permits for demonstrations, and residents of Sweden have the right to engage in such protests—unlike in Iran, where security forces shoot and beat demonstrators.

But the odium now being directed against Sweden is not an accident based on sloppy fact-checking—it’s an organized disinformation campaign. Since the end of June alone, the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency has documented around 1 million items published about Sweden and the Quran burnings—an extraordinary number. The agency also reports that the items often carry headlines incorrectly alleging that Sweden grants permissions for Quran burnings. “These acts are often reported in a completely inaccurate way, with the objective of harming Sweden and Swedish interests and sometimes with the direct call to do so,” Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin noted in a press briefing on July 26.

And the campaign doesn’t just involve Middle Eastern personalities. “Actors supported by Russia are actively amplifying incorrect statements alleging that the Swedish state is behind the desecration of holy books,” Bohlin explained in the press briefing, adding that the allegations “are made with the objective of causing division and weakening Sweden’s international position.” Indeed, helping to fuel the campaign is a cheap and efficient way for Russia to weaken NATO and its partners. At a time when global attention should be focused on Russia’s continuing brutalities in Ukraine, anger is being whipped up against Sweden.

Middle Eastern leaders’ sudden antipathy toward Sweden is all the more remarkable given that Sweden has, over the past few decades, given refuge to tens of thousands of Middle Eastern citizens. Some were regime critics, but many were simply fleeing the atrocities committed by the Islamic State. Some officials from the governments now attacking Stockholm have even benefited themselves.

In 2019, it emerged that Iraq’s then-defense minister, Najah al-Shammari, had previously received asylum in Sweden using a false name and subsequently been granted Swedish citizenship; Swedish media also reported that he had allegedly continued claiming Swedish welfare benefits while serving as a minister. And in 2022 alone, the Swedish government provided Iraq with more than $26 million in development assistance.

Indeed, Sweden’s NATO accession—to which Paludan reacted with a Quran burning apparently designed to enrage Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and thus to get global attention—has morphed into a drama where outside forces are using Sweden as a convenient target. “The Iranian regime is being challenged by women, so jumping on Sweden is a perfect opportunity for Khamenei,” said Magnus Ranstorp, a senior advisor at the Swedish Defence University’s Centre for Societal Security. “It’s in the interest of the Iranian government and the Iraqi government, and in Erdogan’s interest, to pour oil on this fire, and Momika apparently thinks it’s in his interest to keep desecrating Qurans.”

Until June, very little was known about the Iraqi national, who arrived in Sweden in 2018 and applied for asylum. An investigation by France24 has, however, established that Momika isn’t just any asylum-seeker: In Iraq, he belonged to a Christian militia within the Brigades of Imam Ali, a militant organization linked to Iran. Indeed, in one video verified by France24, Momika calls himself the leader of the militia. He left Iraq after a power struggle with another Christian militia, France24 found. Whatever Momika’s motivations, his provocations in Sweden are giving the regimes in Iran and Iraq an expedient opportunity to redirect citizen frustration away from themselves, toward Sweden. And then there’s Erdogan. “The Quran burnings, and his strong reaction to them, make him the protector of Islam,” Ranstorp said.

The disproportionate anger toward Sweden is just the latest installment in a long-standing campaign against the country that exploded in late 2021 and stalled only when Russia invaded Ukraine. The disinformation campaign, which consistently spread malicious false claims that Swedish social services kidnapped Muslim families’ children, was the most successful waged against Sweden in recent memory. In fact, it was so compelling that Muslim residents in Sweden turned up for protests against the supposed kidnappings. (I wrote about it for Foreign Policy last year.)

“That disinformation campaign has taken off again now but with a new focus saying Sweden is waging war against Islam,” Ranstorp said. “And one of the superspreaders in the child-kidnap campaign [Mustafa El-Sharqawy] is active in the current campaign as well. He sees as his main mission to convince young people not to become enamored with the West. What we’re seeing is a massive collision between Western values and the values represented by some Middle Eastern countries.” Like that campaign, the new campaign is being spread not just on social media but by traditional media in some Middle Eastern countries, too.

Being a liberal democracy is hard work and sometimes infuriating, including during those times when forces that wish you ill exploit your liberties and there’s nothing you can do about it. And it’s galling that the new anger campaign has hitched itself to Sweden’s entirely straightforward NATO application. Thankfully, Erdogan has said he’ll forward the application to the Turkish parliament for ratification in October. If he reneges or throws Sweden and NATO more curveballs, Turkey’s NATO allies and other partners will conclude he can’t be trusted.

But Sweden’s misery is not just about Sweden. The country just happened to be a convenient target, and next time another country will be the target. Indeed, on July 24, demonstrations unfolded in Iran and Iraq after a man burned a Quran in Denmark, which prompted Denmark’s Baghdad embassy staff to leave the city. A circle of hate is being fueled by book-burners and counter-attackers. It’s time for liberal democracies to show the world how those now denouncing Sweden avail themselves of the West when it suits them. I would be curious to see, for example, how many of them buy Western consumer goods or own properties in the Western countries they profess to hate.

[kyreniacommentator]

TRNC President Tatar welcomed and recognised at 15th OIC Summit

President Ersin Tatar is welcomed to the 15th OIC Summit by the President of Gambia. President Ersin Tatar, who is paying a visit to The Gambia to participate in the 15th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), was welcomed to the summit by the President of Gambia, Adama Barrow, at the entrance of the conference centre. Continue reading TRNC…

[zvaigzdelasas]

In a speech to an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) committee meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said the Western nations supporting Israel were giving it "unconditional support to kill babies" and were complicit in its crimes. "Beyond being a war criminal, Netanyahu, who is the butcher of Gaza right now, will be tried as the butcher of Gaza, just as Milosevic was tried," Erdogan said

4 Dec 23

[head-post]

Israel expands evacuation order in Khan Younis, Hamas calls for urgent meeting of Arab League

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas called on Sunday on the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to hold an urgent meeting on the ongoing Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas calls for an end to “genocide”

Hamas stressed the need to “take effective decisions that will lead to an end to the aggression and ongoing genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip, and sever any political, commercial or normalisation relations with the Zionist occupation.”

It also called for “implementing the decisions taken at the joint Arab and Islamic summit held in Riyadh last November 11 to break the blockade and deliver aid and relief to our besieged people in the Gaza Strip.”

He also called on the UN Security Council “to hold an emergency meeting and adopt a decision to oblige Israel to cease its aggression and genocide and stop its blatant violations of laws and treaties, which have become an effective recipe for destabilising regional and international security and peace.”

The Israeli military on Sunday ordered the evacuation of civilians from a humanitarian zone it had set up in the southwestern Gaza Strip, saying it planned to fight in the area because Hamas had “embedded a terrorist infrastructure there.”

It was the Israeli military’s latest evacuation order in 10 months of war, and came a day after Israel gave a similar explanation – that Hamas militants were hiding among civilians – for a strike on a school turned into a shelter that local officials said killed dozens of people.

Strikes on Khan Younis

Tens of thousands of people have fled the town of Khan Younis in recent days following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military last week. The new order on Sunday extended to the al-Jalaa neighbourhood in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it was redrawing the boundaries of the humanitarian zone and called on civilians to move to what it said were safe zones. They said they were sending out phone messages, dropping leaflets and relaying those instructions to residents in the area. But many Gazans say there is no truly safe place in the enclave.

Israel has struck the humanitarian zone before, including last month in the neighbourhood of Khan Younis, home to Hamas military wing commander Mohammed Deif, killing at least 90 people, according to Gaza health authorities. Residents also say the repeated orders to move are exhausting, humiliating and costly.

Nearly the entire population of 2.2 million people in Gaza has been displaced by the bloody war, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health authorities.

People in Gaza had “nowhere to go”

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s main aid agency for Palestinians, said on Sunday that people in Gaza had “nowhere to go” amid evacuation orders and that more than 75,000 people had been displaced in the southwestern part of the enclave in recent days. “Some can only take their children with them, some carry their whole lives in one small bag,” he said in a social media post.

Israel has adjusted the borders of the humanitarian zone several times before; last month, its area was reduced by more than a fifth. The latest reduction seemed more limited. Maps and analyses of satellite imagery show the zone is overcrowded and frequently hit.

Hours before announcing the evacuation order on Sunday, the Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted raid” in Khan Younis, finding weapons including rifles and explosives in a tunnel. They also said their fighter jets struck dozens of targets and killed militants, including one of those involved in the October 7 attack on Israel.

Read more HERE

[kyreniacommentator]

Tatar Meets Head of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

President Ersin Tatar has met with Hissein Ibrahim Taha, the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as part of his visit to New York for the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. The meeting, which was held at the headquarters of the UN, was also attended by OIC Deputy Secretary General Yousef Mohammed A. Aldobeay, Director General of Political Affairs Mohamed Salah…

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Arab News is Saudi Media]

[The New Arab is Saudi Media]

Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should impose an oil embargo and other sanctions on Israel and expel all Israeli ambassadors, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Wednesday.

18 Oct 23