Islamic Factors in Inter-State Cooperation of the OIC Members

Abstract

Aside from its intellectual source in its identification with ‘Ummah,’ a traditional religious community, and its major ideological source in the pan-Islamism in modern times, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was established against the social background featuring the decline of Arab nationalism, the failure of the Islamic Unification Movement and the rise of Islamic Renaissance Movement. As the second largest inter-governmental organization, second only to the United Nations, it has functions and institutions oriented towards politics, economy, religion, culture, to name a few. Its establishment and development has had significant implications on the international cooperation in political, economic, and cultural dimensions between Islamic countries in the Middle East. Taking into account the establishment and development of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, we must recognize the importance of Islam in promoting the inter-state cooperation between Islamic countries and the fact that the distinctive disparities between the economic levels or political institutions in these Islamic countries and their complicated domestic contradictions make it rather difficult for this organization, which is short of common interests or powerful organizational and financial support, to unite the vast and densely populated Islamic world into a powerful political-economic entity.