Source: Guardian UK

Outgoing head of Organisation of Islamic Co-operation also says west should do more to combat anti-Muslim prejudice

• Reuters in Paris
• theguardian.com, Tuesday 31 December 2013 14.28 EST

The outgoing head of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) has said Muslim states ought to broaden rights for religious minorities.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who stepped down on Monday after nine years as secretary general of the 57-country group representing the Islamic world, also said western countries should do more to combat an increase of prejudice against Muslims there.

Concern for Christians in the Middle East has risen in recent years among churches worldwide as wars and Islamist rebels have killed or driven many from their homes in the region.

The religious diplomacy of the OIC, which is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, had previously been long focused on a fruitless effort to have the United Nations pass a global ban on insults to Islam. The fate of Christian minorities in Muslim countries had rarely figured in its declarations.

In an email exchange with Reuters, Ihsanoglu wrote: “I have no doubt that there is room for religious freedom improvements in some parts of the Muslim world with regard to allowing non-Muslims to have access to their religious facilities or construction of such facilities.”

Christians in the Middle East frequently complain of restrictions or bans on churches there and their leaders, alarmed by the rise of hardline Islamists in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings, have tried to emphasise their long histories in the region and have urged their communities not to leave.

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