OIC TO ADDRESS RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AGAINST MUSLIMS

        Kuala Lumpur, 21 Safar 1434/03 January 2013 (Bernama/MINA)  – The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold a meeting with legal and human rights experts to address religious intolerance against Muslims, it said in a statement Thursday.

        The meeting, to be held in Istanbul on Jan 6 and 7, will be opened by OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, it said, adding that in November 2012, the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) had met in Djibouti, and the council had decided to have a meeting this year.

        In a resolution passed at the CFM meeting, Ihsanoglu was required to form a panel of eminent people to advise OIC member states on international law and to combat discrimination and intolerance against Muslims.

        Rizwan Sheikh, a spokesperson for Human Rights Issues at the OIC said Islamophobia, discrimination and intolerance against Muslims were some of the issues that the OIC wanted to address.

        He said a core panel set up by Ihsanoglu consisted of three eminent lawyers and human rights practitioners, namely Cherif Bassiouni, Doudou Diene and Ahmer Bilal Soofi.

        The panel’s meeting will be attended by coordinators of the OIC Ambassadors Group and the OIC Permanent Observers.

        In addition, a representative of the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) will also be present.

       The outcome of the meeting will be presented at the 12th Islamic Summit in Cairo in February, to finalise the parameters of a unified and a politically tenable OIC position to combat discrimination and intolerance against Muslims.

       Apart from that, an action plan with regard to discrimination against Muslims will also be drafted.

       Ihsanoglu has also been invited to participate in another meeting in Wilton Park, London, on Jan 22, to combat religious intolerance against Muslim.(T/R-007/R-006).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)