Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry will attend the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, which will kick-off in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, under the theme 'Building Partnerships for Unity, Justice, and Development.' The session will address many topics and the activities of the OIC General Secretariat in implementing the resolutions adopted for various issues in the Islamic world, including the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem. It will also review several political files, most notably the developments in Afghanistan and its humanitarian implications for the Afghan people, as well as the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, the session will address several African issues, including the situation in the Republic of Mali, the Sahel region, Lake Chad, the vulnerability of the situation in the region, as well as the situation in Central Africa and the Republic of Guinea. At the Arab level, the CFM will address developments in Yemen, Libya, the Republic of Sudan, Somalia, and Syria. "This two-day session is taking place at a critical stage when the Muslim world is facing a range of issues," Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahmood Qureshi said, referring to the Palestinian issue and the situation in Kashmir. The Pakistani FM revealed that more than 100 resolutions will be considered during the session, expressing confidence that member states would reach a consensus and a comprehensive way forward after consultation to address all issues. Referring to the recent adoption by the United Nations (UN) of a resolution supported by the OIC on Islamophobia, Qureshi said that when the entire Islamic nation unites on any issue, the result is always very fruitful, as the whole world agreed to fight this phenomenon and set 15 March of each year as a day to highlight the matter.
Furthermore, the General Secretariat of the OIC will submit an Islamophobia Observatory periodic report to the session. The report listed COVID-19 among the major factors that led to the spread of Islamophobia globally in 2021, along with the agenda of the extreme right, the crisis of immigrants and refugees, attacks by extremist and terrorist groups, as well as hate speech adopted by some media.
The report concluded that Islamophobia is expected to continue and even increase. The increase appears to have remained steady over the last fourteen months, with the exception of a noticeable disproportionate decrease in 2021.
Measuring the extent of the phenomenon, the report found that Europe ranked first, followed by Asia, then North America. The Observatory indicated that France and Britain witnessed the highest rates of activities related to Islamophobia, especially through government policies that seemed to serve increasingly far-right tendencies.
