34 States Islamic Alliance

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was created with an objective to safeguard the interests of the Muslim countries around the world as well as promote inter-state multilateral as well as bilateral relationships among the member states. However, OIC has not yet been successful in managing the Muslim world dynamics and issues. The study provides an analysis of the OIC objectives, the Muslim world issues, and the role of OIC in managing the Muslim world affairs. The qualitative analysis of the OIC role in the Muslim world suggests that OIC has been unable to pursue its objectives due to the incapacity of its organizational structure. Study outlines the current strategic environment of the Muslim world that highlights the importance for development of a mechanism that could bring the Muslim world out of the complex organism of threats it is confronting with. The study has also evaluated the currently introduced 34 states ‘Islamic Alliance’ and infers that the creation of new alliances is not plausible in the light of current strategic environment of the Muslim world. The study finds out that OIC is the only forum that can contribute to achieve the required outcomes if its organizational structure is reformed. It ends with recommendations for some profound amendments in the existing OIC’s organizational structure as well as mechanism for proper functioning that would contribute in activating the OIC forum in a manner that would be enabled to manage the Muslim world affairs and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity among the Muslim states.

Saudi Arabia’s announcement of the formation of an ‘Islamic Alliance’ to combat terrorism in mid-December 2015 incurred the concern of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ‘caliph’ of the Islamic State. His propagandists were unprepared to address the ideological ramifications of such a paradigm shift in Saudi behavior. The anti-Saudi ideological formulations and narratives that the jihadists had developed over a number of years did not factor-in the possibility that Saudi state would undertake aggressive military operations beyond its borders, operations directed primarily against themselves. Saudi thinking may be premised on the idea that the Islamic State—seeking local support in Iraq and Syria by claiming to act in defense of Sunnis against tyranny and sectarianism—would crumble easily and quickly if faced with an ‘Islamic Alliance’ that aims to liberate Sunnis from both the Islamic State and Iranian hegemony alike. The announcement has raised popular expectations of an impending ‘new order’ in the Middle East among those heartened by what they consider ‘long-overdue’ Saudi activism. However, the new Saudi initiative is a dangerous gamble that may backfire on rhetorical and ideological grounds if the campaign fails or takes too long.