Organization of the Islamic Conference (original) (raw)

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is an international organization with a Permanent Delegation to the United Nations. It represents 57 mostly Islamic nations in the Middle East, North and West Africa, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. The OIC is dedicated to serving the vital interests of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims.

The OIC describes itself as "an international organization grouping fifty seven States which have decided to pool their resources together, combine their efforts and speak with one voice to safeguard the interests and secure the progress and well-being of their peoples and of all Muslims in the world."

The OIC was set up in Rabat, Morocco on September 25, 1969 in reaction to an arson against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on August 21, 1969. While OIC statements describe the arsonist Dennis Michael Rohan as a "Zionist element" [1], Western sources maintain that, in contrast to the firemen who put the fire off, Rohan was neither Israeli nor Jewish but an Australian Protestant follower of an evangelical sect known as the Church of God. [1]