Saudi shuns Muslim summit, Pakistan ducks out

KUALA LUMPUR: Leaders and senior representatives from some 20 Muslim nations flocked to the Malaysian capital yesterday to discuss issues agitating Muslims globally at a summit Saudi Arabia decided to snub and Pakistan ducked out of attending.

No agenda for the summit has been released, but it could address age-old disputes in Kashmir and the Middle East, conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority, and mounting outrage over China’s camps for Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang

— a subject that will doubtless upset Beijing — as well as how to counter the spread of Islamophobia in the world.

Two of the world’s most outspoken leaders, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan will be giving their views during the four-day summit, which wraps up on Saturday.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, who along with Mahathir and Erdogan had been a prime mover behind the summit, made a belated decision to skip the meeting.

Some Pakistani officials, unnamed because they are not authorised to speak to the media, said Khan pulled out under pressure from close ally Saudi Arabia.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid Al-Thani, whose countries have tense relations with Saudi Arabia, are also attending.

Explaining its decision to stay away, Saudi Arabia said the summit was the wrong forum for matters of importance to the world’s 1.75 billion Muslims, though some analysts suspect it feared being diplomatically isolated by regional rivals Iran, Qatar and Turkey.

Saudi state news agency SPA reported that on a call with Mahathir on Tuesday, Saudi King Salman reaffirmed that such issues should be discussed through the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The Saudi government’s centre for international communication did not respond to a request for comment.

Even as delegations were arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian officials were unable to provide a final list of who will be attending. Mahathir’s office said invitations had been sent to all 56 OIC member states, but officials said only about 20 were sending delegations.

Defending the summit, Mahathir’s office issued a statement saying there was no intention to create a “new bloc as alluded to by some of its critics”.

“The summit is not a platform to discuss religion or religious affairs but specifically to address the state of affairs of the Muslim Ummah,” it said, using the Arabic term for community.