Okaz/Saudi Gazette

NEW YORK — Saudi Arabia said that the current structure of the United Nations and its international counter-terrorism structure has proved incapable of stemming the phenomenon of stereotyping of Muslims and has been instrumental in triggering a wave of terrorist attacks against Muslims based on Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia.

Addressing the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Group to the UN here, Advisor Muhammad Al-Ateeq, chargé d’affairs at the Kingdom’s permanent delegation at the UN, said that it has become clear that the current UN counter-terrorism structure and tools to counter it are no longer keeping pace with changing threats.

He identified the void in tackling these threats, especially those linked to new threats arising from racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, carried out by nationalist extremists, the far right and other groups and ideologies.

These new threats pose a major challenge to the international community at present, he said.

“The OIC group reaffirms that terrorism should not be linked to any religion, race, belief, values, culture or society, as the experience of the past two decades showed that the current structure of the UN and the international counter-terrorism structure has led to the stereotyping of Muslims.

“The agenda of preventing and countering violent extremism and terrorism over the past two decades has largely focused on the so-called violent Islamic extremism,” he said.

Al-Ateeq noted that such an approach is not only compromising the basic rights of Muslim communities and Muslims in many parts of the world, but has instigated a wave of terrorist attacks against Muslims based on Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia.

The Saudi diplomat underscored the need to distinguish between terrorism and peoples’ exercise of their legitimate right to resist foreign occupation.

“This distinction is stipulated in international law and international humanitarian law, as well as Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and General Assembly Resolution 46/51, which also emphasizes this position,” he added.