By MAHA AKEEL, LIFE.STYLE@ARABNEWS.COM
This book answers the question: What has the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), recently renamed as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, done in the past 40 years of its existence? It courageously addresses some existential questions of its relevance and place in today’s complicated, interconnected and multi-clustered world.
Written from an insider’s standpoint, it is a fairly objective recount of the organization’s successes and failures with much self-evaluation and criticism.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is the current secretary general of the OIC since 2005. He is the ninth, and first democratically elected, but his association with the organization goes back to 1980 when he took office as founding director general of the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), one of the OIC subsidiary organs.
The book is a very informative and useful study of the history of the OIC within the context of the history of the Islamic world and international events over the past 40 years. It provides a clear perspective on the OIC as an organization, what it stands for, its role and objectives, and how it came into existence and why. However, it is not just simply a historical narrative of events, but more importantly an in-depth analysis of the background and circumstances that prompted its creation and influenced its function.
Categories: Asia, Islam, Middle East, Saudi Arabia