The Makkah Declaration of Muslim Heads of State

By Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi

And say: "Do action. Soon will Allah observe your work, and His Messenger, and the Believers: soon will you be brought back to the Knower of what is hidden and what is open: then will He show you the truth of all that you did." (Al-Tawbah 9:105)

Allah wants believers to act and act in the right way. Our words will have only meaning when they are met with proper actions. Last week was the Summit of the rulers of 57 Muslim countries and the leaders of many other international Muslim organizations, held in the sacred city of Makkah Mukarramah.
The leaders who gathered recognized that the Muslim world was facing grave challenges. Some of the measures they agreed upon for changing the present condition are quite impressive and important. We hope that they will also begin implementing them immediately. I would like to mention here some of the important issues of the Makkah Declaration.

On the Intellectual Level:
The Summit reaffirmed that Islam is a religion of moderation which rejects bigotry, extremism and fanaticism, and in this connection underlined the importance of developing educational curricula that firmly establish the values of understanding, tolerance, dialogue and multilateralism in accordance with the tenets of Islam.
The Summit stressed that dialogue among civilizations based on mutual respect, understanding and equality between people, is a prerequisite for establishing a world marked by tolerance, cooperation, peace and confidence among nations.
The Summit called for combating pseudo-religious and sectarian extremism, and for the need to refrain from accusing followers of Islamic schools of heresy, and reaffirmed the need to deepen dialogue and promote restraint, moderation and tolerance and issuance of Fatwas by those not eligible to issue them.
The Summit underlined the importance of improving the Islamic Fiqh Academy in order to make it the jurisprudential authority of the Ummah.

On the Political Level:
The Summit stressed several areas of concern:
Palestine and the city of Jerusalem as the central issue of concern for the Ummah. The situation in Iraq and the concern for its security, unity and territorial integrity, stability and reconstruction. Support of the people of Kashmir and their inalienable right to self-determination, human rights and freedom of its people.
Support of many other important areas of concern such as: Solidarity with the Muslim Turkish Cypriot people, reconstruction of war affected areas in Sudan, Security and reconstruction in Somalia, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
Support of the people affected by natural disasters
Condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, rejection of its justification and joining in the international efforts to combat this phenomenon.
The need to collectively endeavor to reflect the noble Islamic values, counter Islamophobia, defamation of Islam and its values and desecration of Islamic holy sites, and to effectively coordinate with States as well as regional and international institutions and organizations to urge them to criminalize this phenomenon as a form of racism.
The concern at the rising hatred against Islam and Muslims in the world and condemning the recent incident of the desecration of the personality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad -peace be upon him - in the media of certain countries. The Summit stressed the responsibility of all governments to ensure full respect of all religions and religious symbols and the inapplicability of using the freedom of expression as a pretext to defame religions.
The importance of promoting cooperation and dialogue with non-OIC member states with Muslim communities and their true representatives to preserve their rights and continue to carefully monitor the developments.
Establishing an independent permanent body to promote human rights in Member States as well as to prepare an Islamic Charter on Human Rights, especially the importance of promoting women’s rights and education.
The need for the media in the Muslim world to project the true and bright image of our Islamic religion, and to effectively deal with international media to attain this objective. It also called for the revitalization of the Standing Committee for Information and Culture (COMIAC) and underlined the importance of extending support to the Digital Solidarity Fund in order to develop information society in the Muslim countries.

On the Economic and Social Level:
The need to establish a Free Trade Area among the Member States, the need to achieve a considerable increase in intra-OIC trade, and welcome the establishment of the Islamic Corporation for Trade Finance, increasing the capital of the Islamic Development Bank in order to enable it to meet the needs of Member States. It also reaffirmed the vital role played by the private sector in development.
The Summit underlined the importance of cooperation in the fields of poverty alleviation, capacity building, elimination of illiteracy, and eradication of diseases and epidemics such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and the need to mobilize the necessary resources to this end by establishing a special fund within the IDB.
The Summit called for support to African development and reaffirmed commitment to the Millennium Development Goals by adopting appropriate measures to alleviate poverty in the Member States, and urged creditor States to write off the bilateral and multilateral debts of low-income Member States. The Summit also encouraged Member States’ initiatives aimed at promoting economic cooperation with the rest of Member States and with the Least Developed and Low-Income State Members of the OIC.
The Summit decided to take practical steps to achieve scientific and technological development, with a view to supporting sustainable development in OIC Member States.
We thank Allah for this very positive meeting. We pray to Allah that He unite this Ummah and guide the Ummah and all its leaders to follow the right path in order to receive Allah’s blessings, help themselves and help humanity at large. Ameen.
(Khutbah at ISOC – Dhul Qi’dah 7, 1426/ December 9, 2005)
-DrSiddiqi@aol.com

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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