Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen

New Delhi: The division in the Islamic Ummah came to fore with Saudi Arabia advising Malaysia to refrain from splitting Organisation Islamic Conference(OIC) and raising issues related to Muslims at the Kuala Lumpur Summit that was launched on Wednesday. The suggestion by Saudi Arabia also had backing of UAE another powerful member of OIC.

While the issue of Kashmir was not specifically mentioned by Saudi Arabia as one of the issues from the Muslim world, Riyadh has maintained neutrality over the Kashmir issue since August 5. The Kingdom backed India on the issue of cross-border terror during PM Narendra Modi’s trip to Riyadh in October. UAE had described decision to scrap Article 370 as an internal matter of India.


The Saudi advice even shaped Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision as he cancelled his visit to Malaysia at the last moment where he was scheduled to address the Kuala Lumpur Summit, a meet which he helped to organise. Pakistan not only withdrew from this Summit but even retracted statement it issued in anticipation of UNSC closed door session that was originally scheduled to discuss Kashmir issue at the behest of China. But the item was withdrawn from agenda after four other permanent members of UNSC besides few others were opposed to it.

Riyadh, which had extended a helping hand to the Pakistan’s Tehreek-i-Insaf government in its early days to stave off economic crisis, wanted Islamabad to stay away from the event, ET has reliably learnt.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates aren’t comfortable with the Kuala Lumpur Summit that began on Wednesday as they were worried that it could cause “division in Ummah” and lead to the setting up of an organisation under Malaysia’s leadership parallel to the existing Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which has traditionally been guided by Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan was planning to raise the Kashmir issue at the Kuala Lumpur summit which could have had the backing of hosts Malaysia and Turkey. However, Malaysia or Turkey could still use the opportunity to raise the Kashmir issue at the summit.

Pakistan was one of the first countries with whom Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamed shared his plans for holding the summit, when he met Khan along with the Turkish President on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in September.

Later, Khan formally conveyed his acceptance of the invitation for attending the summit when deputy foreign minister Marzuki Bin Haji Yahya of Malaysia called on him in Islamabad on November 29. ET had reported earlier this week that Mahathir is trying to take leadership role in the Islamic world through this meet.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi confirmed on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were worried that the event could cause “division in Ummah” and lead to the setting up of an organisation parallel to the existing Saudi-dominated Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Qureshi said it was decided that Pakistan would first seek to bridge the gap between Riyadh and Kuala Lumpur. The foreign minister said that Pakistan tried to bridge the differences and succeeded not only in getting invites for the Saudis and Emiratis, but also convinced Mahathir to personally visit Riyadh and directly invite the King.

Mahathir, meanwhile, admitted that when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday that the Saudi King was averse to Kuala Lumpur summit discussing Muslim issues. The Saudi monarch reckons that the OIC should continue as the platform for discussing such matters.

“Dr Mahathir received a call from Imran Khan expressing regret for not being able to attend the KL Summit. Dr Mahathir appreciates Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call to inform him of his inability to attend the summit, where the Pakistani leader was expected to speak and share his thoughts on the state of affairs of the Islamic world,” according to a Malaysian government statement.

On Tuesday, Malaysian PM apparently clarified to the Saudi King that the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 is not intended to create a new bloc to replace the OIC.

The summit aims to, among others, discuss and find new and workable solutions to problems facing the Muslim world and contribute towards improving the state of affairs among Muslims and Muslim nations. It also eyes forming a network of Muslim leaders, intellectuals, scholars and thinkers from around the world, and revive the Islamic civilisation.

The KL Summit 2019 was originally supposed to bring together the heads of government from Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar to address and resolve issues concerning the Muslims.