PRESS RELEASE
FORTY-NINTH SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY FUND OPENS
OIC Secretary General commends the policies of the Islamic Solidarity Fund and appeals to Member States to support the Fund’s budget and complete the contribution to its Endowment (Waqf) capital
Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Dr Abdeouahed Belkeziz, has expressed satisfaction about the policies adopted by the Islamic Solidarity Fund, which are aimed at financing projects with tangible impacts in Muslim societies within the limits of the resources available to it. He also hailed the role the Fund has been playing to serve the pressing causes of Muslims since the past 27 years of its existence, having financed various projects in Member States and given various forms of relief to Muslim minorities.
In a speech delivered at the opening of the Forty-ninth Session of the Permanent Council of the Islamic Solidarity Fund (ISF), which took place at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah on 21 Dhul Qaadah 1424H (13 January 2004), Dr Belkeziz explained that the Islamic Ummah continues to face a myriad of political challenges and various forms of economic, cultural and social impediments. He said there was no way to surmount those challenges other than through an effective solidarity and unity of ranks, especially in the international situation that emerged in the aftermath of the September 11 2001 events.
In this connection, the Secretary General commended the Islamic Solidarity Fund’s effective contributions towards the financing of symposia and conferences that seek to portray the Islamic civilisation and culture in their true radiant picture, in an effort to refute the misconceptions of which Islam and Muslims have become targets. Those misconceptions, he said, gave a free rein to hate campaigns made in the West against Islam and its civilisation. He also commended the various forms of assistance the Fund extends to the struggling Palestinian people. He therefore called on Member States to show more interest in helping the Palestinian people in all fields until it is able to restore its usurped rights, achieve self-determination and establish on its national soil its independent state, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Concluding his address, the Secretary General appealed to Member States on the need to bolster the resources of the Fund and to complete the contribution to its Endowment capital which has become a reality, with close to 67% of it already been collected. In this regard he commended the responses of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to this call through their generous donations to the Fund and its Endowment (Waqf) during the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference held in putrajaya, Malaysia.
The agenda of the Forty-ninth Session of the ISF Permanent Council is full of important issues including, the current financial position of the Fund, draft budget estimates for the 2003/2004 financial year, the American Islamic College, Chicago, the situation of some of the Islamic universities, and a consideration of assistance to be offered to some Islamic bodies in support of their development projects, among others.
Jeddah : 13- January- 2004
Document Sources: Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
Subject: Assistance
Publication Date: 13/01/2004