The so-called representative of 1.8 billion Muslims across the world has a sorry record when it comes to the protection and welfare of other religious denominations in their member nations. More than 90% of the OIC member nations have failed in protecting citizens of non-Islamic denominations

by Anand Narasimhan

The 57-member strong Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is concerned and closely watching the recent developments in India, including Parliament passing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). They have also noted the Supreme Court judgment on the Ayodhya title suit. The statement also raises concern for minorities (read Muslims) and their well-being in India. This is a case of a pot calling the kettle black!

The so-called representative of 1.8 billion Muslims across the world has a sorry record when it comes to the protection and welfare of other religious denominations in their member nations. More than 90% of the OIC member nations have failed in protecting citizens of non-Islamic denominations.

It doesn’t just stop there, OIC member nations have also failed those who follow Islam. Kurds and Yemenis are a case in point. Will the OIC answer for more than 18 million Yemenis who are battling hunger and where more than 10 million children have been robbed of their childhood in the war between Houthi rebels and Saudi forces?

The OIC’s leading lights haven’t said much about China’s treatment of Uighurs. Nor have they said anything about Pakistan’s treatment of Baloches, Shias, Ismailis and Ahmaddiyas. Can the OIC name one instance in India like the 2014 Peshawar massacre of school children by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan? Why is the OIC silent when Pakistan admits to the presence of more than 100 terror outfits on its soil and more than 40,000 terrorists?

Given how Daesh, Al-Qaeda and hundreds of other terror groups have spread, it’s clear the OIC has failed in positively projecting Islam. Frankly, the OIC has failed in upholding the interest of Muslims overall. Forget other religions, the fact is that none of the OIC members can boast of being a safe haven for all the 72 sects of Islam. A dispassionate study of the OIC shows it has largely overlooked serious transgressions of human rights by member and non-member nations if it made material and business sense.

Why is it that only 22 member countries jointly slammed China for its treatment of Uighurs? Why were the other 25 members, including Egypt and Pakistan, absent from the list? China bought their silence with business. The OIC doesn’t care for minorities. Frankly, it doesn’t even care for all Muslims. It is all about the money.

Can the OIC match India in its record of treatment of minorities? Can it prove that its members Pakistan and Bangladesh have treated minorities in their country better than India? The numbers speak for themselves. Minorities in India have grown while the majority population has decreased. It’s the opposite in India’s neighbourhood. India continues to follow, in letter and in spirit, the tenets of the 1950 Nehru-Liaquat Pact which Pakistan reneged within a month of signing.

Will the OIC reprimand Pakistan and Bangladesh for its treatment of minorities and its failure to give them their fundamental rights? India treats its citizens well. Perhaps that is why there are many from OIC member nations in the neighbourhood who are entering illegally and seeking refuge here. That India needs the CAA and is looking at a National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a telling statement on the state of affairs in the neighbouring OIC member countries. The OIC needs to mind its own first. Set right its own sorry record. So thank you for the concern OIC, but no thank you!