DHAKA – Bangladesh has proposed restructuring of the charter of theOrganisation of Islamic Conference to pave way for inclusion of non-Muslimcountries like India as an “observer state”.
The OIC is a 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations.
“A number of countries – not OIC members, have large number of Muslims astheir citizens . . . There is a need to build bridges with those non-OICcountries,” Bangladesh’s foreign minister Mahmud Ali said as hiscounterparts in the group joined in their annual council called Council ofForeign Ministers (CFM) in Dhaka.
He said the induction was needed so that a large number of Muslimpopulation “do not remain untouched by the good work of OIC and “that iswhy, reforms and re-structuring is critical for OIC”.
The Muslims may be minority in those countries, but in terms of number –they often exceed the total population of many OIC member countries, Alitold the CFM after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened the meet on Saturday.
Officials and analysts said the proposal was meant mainly for India whereIslam is the second largest religion with Muslims constituting some 10 percent of the global adherents of the faith.
Several OIC states countries and the secretary general of the groupingappreciated the proposal but experts said it could see opposition fromPakistan which had earlier opposed India’s induction. India, however, hasfairly robust relations with most OIC member states.