The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was formed in 1969 at a meeting of leaders of Muslim countries in Rabat, the capital of Morocco; the immediate trigger was the fire at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in August 1969. Until 2011 it was called the “Organisation of the Islamic Conference”; its charter was adopted in Jeddah in 1972, and a new version was approved at the Dakar (Senegal) summit in 2008. Fifty-seven states are members, and the headquarters is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Its supreme body is the Islamic Summit of the leaders of member states, convened every three years; the Council of Foreign Ministers meets annually, and the General Secretariat headed by the Secretary General is the executive organ. Among its aims are strengthening cooperation between member states, economic, scientific and cultural ties, supporting peace and security, and opposing racial discrimination and colonialism. Many structures work under the OIC, such as the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (abbreviated ICESCO since 2020, formerly ISESCO); since 1975 the OIC has had observer status at the UN. Importantly, the OIC is not a religious authority but an intergovernmental political organisation: its decisions are not religious rulings but agreements of member governments, and the political systems of its member countries differ greatly.