“Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are!” goes an Arab proverb. This is also the case with those who joined Iran and Turkey in the Islamic “mini” Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The whole setup was weird and suspicious from the outset. According to the organizers, a new organization, initiated in 2014 by then retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad decided a few months ago to call for a conference of Islamic NGOs to discuss various political and economic issues.
They included Islamophobia, Islamic minorities, world peace, facing up to Western hegemony and the advancement of science and technology. None of these issues is urgent or new.
They were all discussed during the last Islamic Summit in Makkah among 57 Muslim states, as well as in various meetings and conferences under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Muslim World League (MWL), the Arab League, the Islamic Bank and other organizations.
Still, it was so far acceptable; but then the Malaysian Prime Minister decided to invite heads of states as well. As a result, invitations went out to NGOs, political parties, Muslim scholars, academics and heads of OIC member countries.
When most leaders declined the invitation, it was decided to call it the Summit of Five Muslim Nations — Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Indonesia and Malaysia. Days before the summit, Pakistan also opted out. Iran, then, announced its participation.
Hours before the convention, the Indonesian vice president quietly withdrew. Now it became the summit of four Muslim nations, but still claimed to represent the whole Muslim world.
So what connects the dots here? What is clear so far is that the organizers, guests, and sponsoring nation are all members of the “Political Islam” club.
Then came the contradictions. Take for example the Palestinian issue. While the summit took a hard stand against Israel, the dominating member, Turkey, maintains strong political, diplomatic, military, security, economic, and cultural relationships with the supposed enemy. Qatar, too, is on good terms with Israel. Even Iran, with all its show of enmity towards the Jewish State, has kept a functioning relationship under the table since the Iran Contra scandal in the 1980s.
Another contradiction was the absence of the Palestinian Authority. The excuse was that it is not a full state. But even less so is Hamas, which was invited. Besides, isn’t that what Israel is claiming and we, in the Muslim world are refusing to accept? Whose side was the conference taking? And why wasn’t the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) (regarded by the UN as the sole representative of Palestinians, for decades) invited? And how, on earth, could the Palestinian issue be discussed without the Palestinians? The only viable answer is: They are not members of the Brotherhood while Hamas is!
The definition of a contradiction was discussing world peace with Iran, Turkey and Qatar — three of the biggest sponsors of terror, warmongers, and troublemakers in the world!
The invitees excluded not just scholars from Makkah, Madinah and Azhar, but from all the Islamic centers that are not members or advocates of Daesh (so-called IS), Al-Qaeda, Nusra and the Brotherhood.
A report published by Al-Arabiya detailed the resumes of a long list of these invitees, exposing their links to terror organizations and a number of attacks including Sept. 11.
Yes, you can judge a person by his friends. In this case, we can tell that what united those who attended the conference in Kuala Lumpur was their hatred toward the West, moderate Arab and Muslim states, and, in particular, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
They are linked to terror groups, advocates of Political Islam, and affiliated with the Brotherhood. They could as well have called it: the Brotherhood Summit for Political Islam!
— Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him at Twitter:@kbatarfi
