From National Catholic Register
BY EDWARD PENTIN 12/12/2013
Pope Francis is to meet the secretary general of the influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) tomorrow morning, the Vatican has confirmed.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a Turkish diplomat and academic, heads the Jeddah-based organization, whose membership comprises 57 Muslim-majority states, spread over four continents.
Founded in 1969, the organization claims to be the largest global intergovernmental organization after the United Nations and the “collective voice of the Muslim world.” Its stated aim is to ensure and protect the interests of Muslims “in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world.”
In 2005, it enacted a “Ten-Year Program of Action” to promote tolerance, moderation and extensive reforms in all spheres of activities within its member states. These include good governance and promotion of human rights in the Muslim world, “especially with regard to rights of children, women and elderly and the family values enshrined by Islam,” according to its website.
Each year it releases an “Islamophobia” report that aims to offer “a comprehensive picture of Islamophobia as it exists mainly in Western societies.”
Tomorrow’s meeting comes at a time when the conflict in Syria and rising persecution against Christians in the Middle East is of significant concern to the Holy Father.
It also takes place at a time when Church relations with Islam on the international level have been positive under Francis’ leadership. They suffered a setback after Benedict XVI’s Regensburg lecture in 2006, which was perceived by many Muslims as anti-Islamic, although many observers saw a major fruit of the controversy being a more meaningful dialogue than before.
