Socio Economic uplift key to Muslim Ummah`s progress: Musharraf

Wednesday May 16, 2007 (0653 PST)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf addresses during the opening ceremony of the 34th session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad. Email Most Popular Print Add to Favorite Related Links OIC participants call for proactive Muslim media for countering western propaganda Sufism can bridge gap between Islam, West: Shujaat Musharraf urges int`l community to play proactive role in settlement of political conflicts facing Muslim world Kasuri emphasizes resolution of political conflicts faced by Muslim countries Politics, not religion root of growing divide between Muslims, West: Maleeha More Related News >>  Pictorial ,  No of Pictures: 5  Cartoons , No of Cartoons: 3

ISLAMABAD: President Gen Pervez Musharraf urging Muslim countries to work for socio economic uplift for Muslim Ummah for overcoming the western perceptions of Muslims being extremists and religiously intolerant.

"The Islamic world is on a downward stride, disparity between Muslims and the western world is growing and we are taking a descendent path. Muslim countries collectively need to work for overcoming western perceptions that we are religiously intolerant people", the president said while addressing the 34th session of Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) which opened here on Tuesday to prepare strategy and adopt measures for the projection and promotion of peace, progress and harmony.

The president said that it is most unfortunate that despite the fact that Muslim countries are gifted with resources they still lag behind and ours GDP is less than the developed world, literacy level is the lowest at 50 percent and we have to look towards the western world for settling our problems.

" We need to put an end to this descending path and convert it into an ascending path so that our future generations can carry on this ascending path to face the challenges of the future world", the president said.

He said that we ignore realities and continue to go on separate paths than our future is dark and extremists` forces would succeed.

He said all this needs to be done from the platform of OIC, which needs to be strengthened as a body.

President said that rich Islamic countries need to come forward and make sacrifices for those Islamic countries which are less fortunate. We need to rise above ourselves and work for the entire Ummah. President said the collective GDP of Islamic countries stands at more than 2 trillion dollars if each country even gives 0.01 percent to OIC that is sufficient and we do not have to look at other world bodies for help. He said that Islamic Development Bank and OIC should work in synch for establishing monetary funds.

Stressing on conflict resolving for world peace president said that a conflict resolution mechanism should be set up within the OIC so we don`t need to go to the western world to solve our problems.

He said the Palestinian issue, conflict between Syria and Israel over Bolan heights needs to be settled. He said in Iraq territorial integrity should be maintained and outside interference should be stopped. He proposed that if warring factions agree than Muslim Keeping force under the umbrella of UN should be sent to Iraq.

He said for settling the Afghanistan issue we support the Bonn process and ground realities should be clear on existing environment fir tactics of implementation success. He said a long term world commitment is required to get Afghanistan on the path of democracy.

Talking about Pak-India relations he said that the relations between the two countries are progressing well and both sides have realized that there is no military solution to the dispute and all issues should be settled politically. He said that we are moving towards peace and CBMs are continuing.

President said that in order to settle any conflict we have to swallow our egos and adopt the path of compromise.

He said that we want Muslim Ummah to progress and joint efforts are needed to settle all conflict issues and work for the uplift of Ummah. Delegations from 57 member states of OIC are participating in the Conference being held at the Jinnah Convention Center.

The theme of the interactive ministerial session is "Countering Discrimination and Intolerance against Muslims and defamation of Islam.

A number of important meetings will be held on the sidelines of the ICFM including a session of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir at the ministerial level.

The Conference will also discuss economic issues and cooperation among member states in the areas of science and technology, information, health, environment, cultural and social affairs and the OIC universities.

The issue of Islamophobia and inter-faith harmony will be discussed and the conference will prepare strategies to foster mutual understanding and dialogue between the Islamic world and the West. The conference will adopt an "Islamabad Declaration".

End.