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RUMI Forum event: Why the OIC matters for the United States
April 1, 2008
By Zainab Abdul-Rahim
The RUMI Forum hosted an event on Tuesday featuring Ambassador Abdul Wahab, Permanent Observer of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the United Nations, and Joseph K. Grieboski, Founder and President of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. Wahab and Grieboski spoke about why the OIC is important for the United States
Wahab began by describing how the OIC, a 57-member organization of Muslim states, is an historically important entity that focuses on social and economic development, human rights, and good governance.
Grieboski called the OIC “a very important organization in global politics,” and noted that President Bush sent a special envoy, Sada Cumber, to the OIC to promote dialogue and friendship between Islamic states and the West. It took the president eight months to find the right person to send, Grieboski said.
He further expanded on the organization’s importance, noting that there are currently 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, and he described the OIC as the “United Nations of the Islamic world.” The OIC, Grieboski said, ensures that viewpoints of modern Islam are made apparent, while opposing radicalized, politicized extremist Islamic views.
Grieboski also said that the OIC expects Cumber to properly and positively present the Islamic image to the U.S. in order to create a better understanding of how Islam and Muslims fit into the world. He asserted that Islamophobia is currently the biggest challenge the OIC faces, because this issue is recognized as a serious problem.
The U.S. envoy to the OIC is considered helpful because he promotes human rights, Grieboski said. This is important, he added, because others have said that the OIC had been supportive of human rights violators, especially in anti-Semitic cases.
During the question and answer session, Grieboski said that the Bush administration made a “great mistake” by not having appointed an envoy to the OIC sooner. The U.S. had an opportunity to send “a solid and tangible message” to the rest of the world, he argued.
Grieboski also sought to clarify that the OIC focuses on what is best for Muslims, not Arabs, and that it is crucial that Bush and Cumber do not confuse the two.
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