The Islam-Aligned Movement

The Non Aligned Movement is a loose alliance of countries that was originally established back in the 1950s as a counterweight to both NATO and the Soviet Bloc. Nasser, Nehru, Sukarno, Tito, and other luminaries of the period gathered together in prominent venues to demonstrate the alternative to the world’s two superpowers.

A lot has changed since those days, but the Non Aligned Movement continues. Nowadays, however, it seems to be more of an Islam-Aligned Movement.

At the 15th Non Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting, which concluded recently in Tehran, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), was at pains to point out the convergence of interests of the two groups:

The high level participation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference is a reflection of the close cooperation and collaboration that exist between the Non- Aligned Movement and the OIC. In fact, 51 of the 57 Member countries of the OIC are also Non Aligned Movement Members. This in itself is a strong bond that unites our two organizations.

(NAM members are shown in dark blue; observer countries in light blue.)
He makes no bones about it: the OIC and NAM generally agree with each other. Since NAM has 118 members, and fifteen of those are tiny island nations, the Muslim countries in the group are very close to an effective majority. Thus the two organizations generally see eye-to-eye.

And what do they see? Islamophobia!

The scourge of the West, and the bane of Muslims everywhere.

Yes, there’s a thin veneer of postmodern Frankfurt school jargon over the boilerplate:
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Historically, the OIC and the Non Aligned Movement have consistently been in the forefront of the struggle against colonialism, neo- colonialism, racism, denial of self-determination, foreign domination and have relentlessly supported freedom, disarmament and the adherence to the ideals of a world order free from international tensions and devoted to securing the well being and prosperity of all peoples. Today, the internal and the external challenges facing our countries are daunting. Issues such as globalization, climate change, environmental degradation, and access to clean drinking water, shortage of energy, epidemics, and regional conflicts and most lately, the shortage of food supply and the rising prices of oil and food items as well as human rights, good governance, and multilateralism, combating international terrorism, reform of the UN system, globalization and the democratization of international financial institutions, are on top of the agenda of our two organizations.

So all the buzzwords are in place, but it’s not long before Prof. Ihsanoglu gets down to the nitty-gritty:

The menace of terrorism and the baseless attempts to link it to Islam and the alarming phenomenon of Islamophobia and attempts to defame Islam and its holy prophet represent serious challenges to the Muslim World.

The baseless attempts to link terrorism to Islam. As progressive-minded people everywhere know, there’s no evidence whatsoever to link Islam with terrorism. Those few misguided and mentally ill zealots who commit all those heinous crimes in the name of Allah have hijacked a great and peaceful religion. They are obviously not true Muslims.

And Prof. Ihsanoglu promotes “stability” as enthusiastically as Henry Kissinger or James Baker or any of the other realpolitik fetishists of the State Department and the EU:

Internally, we are confronted by many problems at the top of which come the problems of political instability, conflicts, the food crisis and underdevelopment. These factors adversely affect our ability to face the external challenges.

“Stability” is a code word for “reliable thugs installed as dictators-for-life in all our member states”. Once stability is in place, the OIC can muster a consensus to defeat the scourge of Islamophobia once and for all.

The most chilling quote from the Secretary General’s remarks is this one:

As for the Iran’s nuclear issue, I would like to reiterate OIC’s full support to the inalienable rights of all Member States to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. We firmly support the stand that Iran’s nuclear issue should be settled exclusively through dialogue and peaceful means.

The OIC is in Tehran making it officially clear that it has no problem with Iranian nukes. Presumably those nukes may come in handy some day in the struggle against Western Islamophobia.

As you may remember, the OIC has a ten-year plan to defeat Islamophobia:

Within its new vision and mission contained in the Ten Year Program of Action adopted by the Extraordinary Summit in December 2005 in Mecca, and the new Charter adopted in the 11th Summit in Dakar in March 2008, the OIC will continue to devote its resources and efforts to counter the vicious campaign against Islam. We are currently leading a massive effort to disseminate messages of modernization and moderation in the Muslim World as well as dialogue with other faiths, cultures and civilizations as means of enhancing peaceful co-existence and reinforcing the foundations of global peace and security.

Modernization, moderation, dialogue, peaceful co-existence, security, stability, plus…

Nuclear weapons.

It sounds like the 1950s all over again, only with different people sitting in the same old chairs.

However, the Muslims of the OIC are even better at playing these games than their Soviet predecessors. Like the Nazis and the Communists, the Islamic countries have made their intentions clear: they will bury us. It’s no secret that they intend to do so; their leaders and theoreticians are on the public record saying as much, over and over again.

Yet somehow they’ve got the leaders of Western countries snowed. We never seem to learn.


Hat tip: TB.