India and the OIC: To join or not to join?

[Joe Shearer]

There is a difference. OIC is not a "Muslim lovers" group - It was formed to (quoting wiki)

"Muslim governments would consult with a view to promoting among themselves close cooperation and mutual assistance in the economic, scientific, cultural and spiritual fields, inspired by the immortal teachings of Islam."

WIth the world's 2nd largest muslim population, India would be right to be interested in participating in OIC. Economic, Scientific, Cultural and Spiritual - which if these do not apply to Indian muslims?

Secondly the OIC member states will benefit tremendously learning from India (not saying this egotistically) aspects of development, diversity management and diplomacy

From India's pov, while they already have close soperations with almost all muslim countries of substance, OIC membership will help rectify some very wrong perceptions some ill-informed muslims have

BUT and it is big BUT ! - I am not sure if India will actually seek OIC membership. Congress coalition may see it as a minor addition to their weak election arsenal

Please don't bring Indian National politics into these threads.

 

[r3alist]

If India lets say did join with support from Saudi and uae, and then Pakistan left I wonder where that leaves the oic.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I regret deeply that during a necessary absence, this thread has degenerated so deeply.
Gentlemen are requested to maintain the strictest standards. Some of the posts made just before are totally unacceptable. Please let us not see them repeated.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I think this explains why India MUST join the OIC at any cost!!

They did, and ended up eating the pigs breakfast themselves.
Rather ironic, this clip.
Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Oscar]

The global Muslims community needs Indian Muslims.

I absolutely agree - but it goes contrary to the domestic and regional(by that neighborhood) stance the current government of India has taken specifically w.r.t history of Muslims in the subcontinent.

There is precedent to try and right the wrong of history - but to squarely blame one party -manipulate and inflate historical events for political purposes just for feeding it as opium to masses in trying to cover up what were systemic failures to address issues - that goes against the idea of then trying to use a community as the entry point for an organization.

That is what I will leave it at.

The benefits of joining OIC are there - but then again smarter elements looking to sabotage it could exploit it and spread social media rumors on how this goes against Hindu tva ideals and basically lay it dead before it begins.

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

India’s relations with Islamic nations, many of which are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), have become even more prolific over the last decade. While India does not visualise becoming a member of a religious international body, many reasons militate against our formally joining the OIC.
The question of India joining the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was reportedly raised once again. This time it was at the Congress Party’s Japiur chintan shivir, at a discussion on ‘India and the World.’ It was turned down as being inconsistent with India’s secular policy which militates against joining religious organisations.

The question is nevertheless important given that it comes on the eve of the 12th Islamic Summit Conference in Cairo from February 2-7, 2013. Following the misnamed ‘Arab Spring,’ we are seeing Islamic-oriented parties taking office in Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen and Libya. This trend can be expected to embrace other Arab countries in the throes of political upheaval and sectarian militancy – like Syria and Bahrain. India will have to re-calibrate its traditional policy towards these countries in a way that it continues friendly relations, trade, investments and remittances without subjecting the former to religious and sectarian considerations.

An important plank of this re-evaluation will be the question raised at thechintan shivir: Will India joining the OIC give us any particular advantage in dealing with these countries? These countries remain crucial for our energy requirements, provide employment for almost 6 million Indians, account for annual remittances of almost $ 40 billion and are a source of religious and spiritual sustenance to our large Muslim community which goes to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria for the Haj, umra and ziyarat.

The OIC was founded mainly at the behest of Saudi Arabia which still considers the body as an instrument of its foreign policy. India, after being formally invited on the grounds of having the world’s second largest Muslim community, was ejected from the 1969 inaugural Summit of the Islamic Conference Organisation in Rabat, Morocco, due to Pakistan’s machinations. Since then the OIC has had a hostile relationship with India, once again because of Pakistani perfidy. There is a plethora of one-sided and biased OIC Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and the ‘state’ of the Indian Muslim community, all of which have been categorically rejected by India.

Not surprisingly, over the years most OIC member-states from the Gulf and others like Syria, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco to name a few, have told us to disregard these resolutions as they did not reflect their excellent bilateral relations with us. These relationships have become even more prolific over the last decade with our economic success and the OIC member countries’ pervasive realisation that Pakistan’s sponsorship of terror outfits has come home to roost.

It was after 9/11, when educated young Saudi men were involved in the terror attack on New York’s World Trade Center and the spread of Al Qaeda under Osama bin Laden, that the OIC was forced to look inward at its role and purpose. Clearly it had failed to promote the stated goals in its Charter of ‘promoting lofty Islamic values of peace, compassion, tolerance, equality, justice and human dignity; contribute to international peace and security; understanding and dialogue among civilizations, cultures and religions; and promote and encourage friendly relations and good neighbourliness, mutual respect and cooperation.’

At the OIC meetings preceding their Summit in 2003, for the first time, the question of looking differently at India was raised when a senior Qatari official proposed that India should be invited to join the organisation – a move that is anathema to countries like Pakistan. While the proposal was quickly nipped in the bud, its point that the Indian Muslim community lived and flourished in a secular environment, continued to resonate within the larger membership of the OIC especially those which had seen an exponential growth in their economic relations with India.

India’s phenomenal economic success in the subsequent years and its growing relationship with the United States had the demonstration effect of the monarchs in the Gulf making a bee-line for India to find ways of marrying their hydrocarbon and financial resources with India’s skills, human resource talent and exponentially growing market. This effort at building asymmetric complementarities eclipsed the hitherto important religious dimension of the relationships. In this context, during his State visit to Delhi in January 2006, King Abdulla bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia proposed that India join the OIC as an ‘Observer’ member.

India has still to respond to this Saudi initiative. While India does not visualise becoming a member of any religiously-oriented international organisation, other reasons also militate against our formally joining the OIC in any capacity. First, it will make us party to the plethora of partisan, biased and anti-Indian OIC resolutions on India. That will bring us under pressure to abide by some of its particularly deplorable resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, such as the unsolicited visit by an OIC fact-finding team. Second, if at all we decide to join, it must be as a founder-member, having been ejected from the inaugural conference in Rabat. Finally, it all boils down to whether the OIC has genuinely changed its view of India under the influence of a more progressive and tolerant membership. This has yet to be tested.

At the same time Saudi Arabia’s offer needs a response, given that the two countries are now looking at a strategic partnership and that Saudi Arabia is, and could become, our largest and reserve supplier of crude. A via mediawould be to propose an annual institutional-level dialogue between the OIC and an appropriate Indian organisation to work at improving the atmosphere between the OIC and India by promoting a dialogue on civilisation, culture and society.

Our bilateral relations with all the Arab and Islamic countries – including those which have seen a change towards democratic governance – have not suffered a dip so far. We will need to look at creative ways to ensure that they continue to grow without being held hostage to the Islamic factor.

Ambassador Rajendra Abhyankar, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, was Director, Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He now teaches at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington.

India and the OIC: To join or not to join? - Gateway House

India’s relations with Islamic nations, many of which are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), have become even more prolific over the last decade. While India does not visualise becoming a member of a religious international body, many reasons militate against our formally...

www.gatewayhouse.in

I wouldn't mind India joining OIC since India has 200 million Muslims. BUT India has a conflict with a key OIC member which is Pakistan.

So there you go. India cannot be a member of OIC at this time as long it is in a conflict with Pakistan.

 

[313Ghazi]

Gentlemen, NO toilet remarks or insults will be allowed.
@313Ghazi
@GatlingGun
Please restrain yourselves.

Apologies to everyone for my part in the trolling.

Old habits die hard. Let's just hope they die before we do.

 

[Developereo]

Much Ado About Nothing

The OIC makes the UN look like a smoothly oiled German machinery in action.

Let India join OIC. Some Indian politicians and their families will get free trips abroad, make utterly pointless and inconsequential speeches, and come home to carry on the good life.

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

Much Ado About Nothing

The OIC makes the UN look like a smoothly oiled German machinery in action.

Let India join OIC. Some Indian politicians and their families will get free trips abroad, make utterly pointless and inconsequential speeches, and come home to carry on the good life.

I am against India getting full membership in OIC.

OIC should push for resolution of Kashmir dispute with India.

Kashmir dispute is not like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where USA supports Israel.

 

[Developereo]

I am against India getting full membership in OIC.

OIC should push for resolution of Kashmir dispute with India.

Kashmir dispute is not like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where USA supports Israel.

Should.

It hasn't happened and, given where India and Pakistan economies are going, it will not happen. Let's stop living in fantasy land and hoping someone else will solve our problems which our own leadership has no interest in solving.

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

Should.

It hasn't happened and, given where India and Pakistan economies are going, it will not happen. Let's stop living in fantasy land and hoping someone else will solve our problems which our own leadership has no interest in solving.

Agreed, unfortunately India is in a position of strength. This is also our fault too.

We need to fix our house and our economy too. lol.

 

[Developereo]

Agreed, unfortunately India is in a position of strength. This is also our fault too.

We need to fix our house and our economy too. lol.

Pakistani politicians are scrambling over each other to do business with India, Kashmir be damned. Can we blame the other Muslim countries if they look at our politicians and do the same?

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

Pakistani politicians are scrambling over each other to do business with India, Kashmir be damned. Can we blame the other Muslim countries if they look at our politicians and do the same?

No, I do not blame other Muslim countries when they do trade with India.

Every country looks after their national interests first.

But I will never give up on Pakistan. As a Muslim, it is our motherland. There is no where else to run.

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

Should.

It hasn't happened and, given where India and Pakistan economies are going, it will not happen. Let's stop living in fantasy land and hoping someone else will solve our problems which our own leadership has no interest in solving.

Yes, because India can offer more to the world than Pakistan can. This is utterly our fault and the fault of our leadership since Ayub Khan. lol.

We would need to devise a superior strategy to outmaneuver India diplomatically and economically as well. lol.

 

[r3alist]

The global Muslims community needs Indian Muslims.

Why do they need Indian Muslims exactly?

By that logic France can also join the oic.

The joining of oic would not benefit Indian Muslims, it would be an additional hindutva vector of attack on them.

Instead of India, France should join the oic, it seems like the Arabs in France can get Macron to speak against Israel more than the Muslims of India. Tells you alot.