About
- Formerly called as the Organisation of the Islamic Conference till 2011 ,the OIC is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1969.
- It has 57 member states.
- It is the second largest organization after the United Nations.
- Its Headquarters are located at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
- Aims of OIC
- To act as collective voice of the Muslim world.
- To safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.
- The Organization was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on 25 September 1969 following the criminal arson of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1969
- The official languages of the OIC are Arabic, English, and French
- OIC represents a collective population of around 1.8 billion
- 49 members are Muslim-majority countries
- Palestine is a member of OIC but not of UN
- The OIC supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
India & OIC
- India is not a member of OIC
- Islam is the second-largest religion in India with over 200 million Muslims making approximately 15% of the total population
- India has the largest Muslim population outside of Muslim-majority or Islamic states
- Individually, India has good relations with almost all members.
- Why India did not join the OIC ?
- India being a secular country did not want to join an organisation founded on religion.
- It suits to have improved bilateral relations with individual member states
- Disputes
- India has been in the past invited to join as observer nation, but Pakistan has opposed the same.
- There have been statements from the group on the issues of Kashmir, CAA and Babri Masjid verdict. These have been rejected by India stating that OIC has no locus standi in matters strictly internal to India.
- Positives
- India has built close ties with powerful members such as UAE and Saudi Arabia.
- In 2019, India made appearance at the OIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting, as a guest of honour.
- Bangladesh and Maldives both members of OIC and neighbours of India do not want to complicate their bilateral ties with India on Kashmir and other internal issues.
- Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi (UAE) was the chief guest at the 68th Republic Day in 2017
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Sumit is Creator and Author at learncrisp.com. He started this learning platform with a mission to emerge as an aspirants resource hub, especially for those preparing in self study mode. He loves writing and his interests are History, Security and Diplomacy.