In opening the annual Foreign Ministers meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad today, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that the world is heading in the wrong direction, back into a Cold War, a world divided into blocs in which the 1.5 billion people in the OIC countries will have no place. He urged the Foreign Ministers of its 57 member states to think about how the OIC could help mediate to bring about a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, and announced that he would be meeting shortly with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (present at the conference) to discuss how the OIC and China can intervene to try and stop this conflict, which is bringing such great consequences for all nations as the increasing prices of oil, gas, and wheat.
All non-partisan countries are in a special position to do something, and we must do so, he told the ministers.
Khan also addressed the need for the OIC to help stabilize Afghanistan. That nation is finally free of conflict after 40 years, but it faces economic sanctions and non-recognition. The only way to stop international terrorism is to stabilize Afghanistan, Khan emphasized. But, he cautioned, do not dictate to the Afghan people; anyone who knows the Afghan character knows they do not accept this. Let us help them and get them into the international community.
Before raising those specific strategic points, Khan spoke about the greatness of Islam’s teaching and history, in such areas as its emphasis on the quest for knowledge, from birth to grave, a teaching which led to Muslims being the greatest scientists in the world for centuries. Likewise, its teaching of mercy, that governments must look after the weak and the poor, and the need for equality before the law for “great crooks,” as well as poor ones—a principle violated today, he said, as seen in such shocking facts as that every year $1.6 trillion leaves the poor countries for the tax havens in the developed world, robbing the poor countries of what they need to grow.
