The OIC Is the most expensive Failure in Islam
The OIC Is the most expensive Failure in Islam
57 nations. 1.8 billion Muslims. 56 years of summits, resolutions, and declarations. And Palestine is still bleeding. Someone has to say it out loud.
Let us begin with a number. Sixty-two thousand, five hundred. That is the number of Palestinians killed since October 2023, according to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's own documentation — including 18,500 children and 12,400 women. The OIC passed resolutions. The OIC issued communiqués. The OIC convened extraordinary sessions, emergency meetings, and joint summits with the Arab League. And every single time — 62,500 people later — the killing continued without interruption. This is the honest assessment that no OIC press release will ever publish: the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is the most well-funded, most institutionally elaborate, and most comprehensively useless political body in the modern world.
That is not a casual insult. It is a documented verdict. And the Muslim world — all 1.8 billion of us — deserves to hear it plainly.
The History — How We Got Here
The OIC was founded in response to the 1969 arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. An Australian fanatic named Denis Michael Rohan set fire to the mosque on August 21, 1969. Muslim leaders across the world were outraged. Twenty-five countries gathered in Rabat, Morocco, just weeks later. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was born — with Palestine and Al-Aqsa at its very heart. That is where it started. Remember that as we go through what happened next.
25 Muslim nations meet after the Al-Aqsa Mosque arson attack. The OIC is born with a mandate to protect Muslim solidarity and the Palestinian cause. Headquarters established in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Arab members of the OIC participate in the oil embargo against Western nations supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Oil prices quadruple. The West panics. This is the OIC's one genuine moment of collective economic leverage — and it was never repeated.
The 2nd Islamic Summit in Lahore — 38 nations, 23 heads of state, King Faisal, Arafat, Bhutto, Sadat, Gaddafi all in one room on The Mall. Bangladesh recognised. PLO endorsed. The Summit Minar built. The Muslim world's single most powerful gathering. See dedicated section below — and how it still ended in failure.
After Egypt signs the Camp David Accords with Israel, the OIC suspends Egypt's membership and moves the Arab League headquarters from Cairo. A rare moment of collective punishment — but it lasted only 10 years before Egypt was readmitted with no conditions.
The OIC formally adopts its charter committing to solidarity, collective security, and protection of Muslim peoples worldwide. The document is magnificent. The enforcement mechanism is non-existent.
When the US-led coalition attacks Iraq — an OIC member — the organisation cannot agree on a position. Half support the coalition. Half oppose it. First major public demonstration that OIC unity is fictional when geopolitics are involved.
At a Malaysia meeting post-9/11, OIC delegates spend days debating terrorism but cannot reach a definition. They do agree, however, that Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation is not terrorism. One resolution in three days. The world notices.
Syria's OIC membership was suspended on 14–15 August 2012 because of the government's use of heavy weapons against civilians. Bold move. But while the OIC suspended Syria, the Syrian civil war killed 500,000 people and displaced 13 million — with zero OIC intervention.
When Trump declared Jerusalem Israel's capital, the OIC convened an extraordinary session in Istanbul and adopted the "Istanbul Declaration." They condemned the move. They demanded it be reversed. Trump ignored them. The declaration gathered digital dust in the OIC archives.
On November 11, 2023, the OIC and Arab League met in Riyadh for a special summit on the Gaza humanitarian situation. 57 leaders in one room. Cameras everywhere. Statements delivered. Resolutions passed. Ceasefire: not achieved. Killing: continued.
The 15th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference was held in Banjul, Gambia on May 4–5, 2024. It called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and Israeli accountability. Israel continued its operations the following day. And the day after. And every day since.
On March 7, 2025, Syria officially restored full membership after the fall of the Assad regime. Also in 2025: Iran called for an emergency meeting of the OIC on August 7 wanting to drum up support for its war against Israel. Meeting held. Support: symbolic. Action: zero.
The 2nd OIC Summit — held in Lahore from February 22–24, 1974 — was the single most powerful gathering in the organisation's history. 38 nations. 23 heads of state. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat, Gaddafi, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — all in one city. All on The Mall. All in Lahore. The world had just watched the Arab oil embargo bring Western economies to their knees. Muslim solidarity had never felt more real — or more possible.
The outcomes were genuinely historic. Pakistan formally recognised Bangladesh — healing the wound of 1971. The PLO was declared the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Lahore Declaration committed Muslim nations to collective economic cooperation. The Summit Minar was built — and still stands today in our city as a monument to that moment. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the host, walked taller than any Pakistani leader before or since on the world stage.
The men in that room in Lahore were the best the OIC ever had. King Faisal — the most powerful Muslim leader of the 20th century — was assassinated within a year. Bhutto was hanged by his own military in 1979. Sadat was shot dead at a parade in 1981. Gaddafi was killed by rebels in 2011. Sheikh Mujib was murdered with his family in 1975. The OIC's greatest summit produced its greatest leaders — and every single one of them was destroyed.
And Palestine? The PLO was recognised in Lahore in 1974 as the sole representative of Palestinian people. That was 52 years ago. Today, 62,500 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023 alone. The Summit Minar stands. Palestine does not. That is not a coincidence — that is the story of the OIC in one city block.
Why the OIC Fails — The Honest Reasons
The OIC's 57 member states encompass a wide range of political systems, economic conditions, and strategic interests. This diversity often leads to conflicting priorities and an inability to forge a unified stance. Regional rivalries, notably between Saudi Arabia and Iran, worsen these divisions. But let us go beyond the academic language and say what this actually means.
- The OIC has no binding enforcement power — all resolutions are voluntary. Any member can simply ignore them. And they do.
- Saudi Arabia and Iran have been fighting a proxy cold war for decades inside the OIC itself — every Palestinian crisis becomes a Saudi vs Iran power play
- UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco normalized relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords — all are OIC members. They vote on Palestine resolutions while doing business with Israel
- The OIC headquarters is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — making it structurally dependent on Saudi approval for every major decision
- The OIC has no military wing, no sanctions mechanism, no economic enforcement tool, and no ability to expel members who betray its stated principles
- Member states routinely oppress their own Muslim minorities — China with Uyghurs, India with Kashmiris — and the OIC stays largely silent to protect trade relationships
- Political, economic, and structural factors reveal challenges faced by the OIC and highlight the organization's inability to forge a unified stance — the scholars call it "structural." We call it cowardice.
The OIC does not lack resources. It lacks will. And the will is missing because the leaders who run it have more to lose from confronting Israel and the West than they have to gain from protecting their own people.
— Sodager Nadeem MalikMuslim Leaders & the OIC — Who Stood Up and Who Sat Down
The OIC is only as strong as the leaders who sit inside it. Here is an honest assessment of the key figures who have shaped — and failed — the organisation.
The tragedy of the OIC is not that it has bad leaders. It is that even the good intentions of individual leaders are swallowed by an institution structurally designed to produce consensus — and therefore structurally incapable of producing courage.
— Sodager Nadeem MalikGaza 2023–2026 — The Ultimate Test
The Gaza genocide — documented by the OIC's own observatory — represents the most complete test of the organisation's purpose since its founding. For over 18 months, the world witnessed Israel's brutal and systematic genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children were killed. Hospitals, schools, and places of worship were reduced to rubble. And the OIC — 57 nations representing 1.8 billion Muslims — produced the following:
- November 2023 — Extraordinary joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh. Resolution passed. Ceasefire not achieved.
- January 2024 — OIC expressed support for South Africa's ICJ genocide case against Israel. Expressed support — did not join the case.
- February 2024 — Extraordinary session of Information Ministers in Istanbul. Statement condemning Israeli targeting of journalists. Journalists continued to be killed.
- May 2024 — 15th Summit in Banjul, Gambia. Full communiqué calling for ceasefire. Over 34,500 Palestinian citizens killed, 77,500 injured at time of summit. Number continued rising after summit.
- August 2024 — Iran calls emergency OIC meeting after assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Meeting held in Jeddah. No binding outcome.
- August 2025 — Extraordinary Session of Council of Foreign Ministers convened at request of Palestine, Turkey, and Iran. Over 62,500 killed including 12,400 women and 18,500 children documented. More resolutions passed.
- December 2025 — OIC symposium on "The Palestinian Question: Challenges and Prospects." Experts spoke. Papers were presented. Gaza was still under bombardment.
- Total binding actions that forced Israel to stop: Zero.
My Personal Verdict
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is not useless because it lacks resources. It is useless because it was designed to be. An institution where Saudi Arabia and Iran sit at the same table cannot function — because those two countries have been fighting each other through proxies for forty years. An institution where the UAE can sign peace deals with Israel on Monday and vote for Palestinian statehood on Tuesday has no moral coherence. An institution with no enforcement power, no military capability, no economic sanctions mechanism, and no ability to expel betrayers is not an organisation. It is a photo opportunity.
Here is what genuine Muslim solidarity would actually look like: a collective economic boycott of nations arming Israel — not a request but a policy. A joint military deterrence capability. Expulsion of Abraham Accords signatories until they reverse normalization. A special fund that sends actual money to Palestinian families — not statements about it. And a leadership that tells Washington directly: do this again and we turn off the oil.
None of this will happen inside the current OIC framework. Because the current OIC framework serves the interests of Gulf monarchies who need American security guarantees more than they need Palestinian freedom. Until that calculus changes — until the cost of betraying Palestine exceeds the benefit of American protection — the OIC will keep issuing resolutions. And the children of Gaza will keep dying.
56 years. 57 nations. 1.8 billion Muslims. Hundreds of resolutions. Zero wars stopped. Zero occupations ended. Zero accountability delivered. The OIC is not a shield for the Muslim world. It is the illusion of one — and illusions cost lives.
The Muslim world does not need another summit. It does not need another declaration. It needs leaders who are more afraid of Allah's judgment than America's sanctions. Until that day comes — we write, we speak, and we refuse to pretend the emperor has clothes. — Sodager Nadeem Malik
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