Failure on the part of the international community to define the concept of “terrorism”, leaving that term open for diverse interpretations only serves the interests of many a party hostile to Islam that, as was recently witnessed, left no stone unturned to let this word be as extensible as possible. Their objective, of course, is to have this expression encompass all that serves their special objectives and narrow interests.

We have aligned our stances on terrorism at two extraordinary conferences held for this purpose. The first was convened, on October 10, 2001, in Doha, in the wake of the September 11 events, at the invitation of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa AI-Thani, to discuss developments of the war in Afghanistan. That conference offered us a great opportunity to define our attitude towards terrorism and proclaim our support to the international campaign against it, provided it targets those whose involvement in the terrorist acts would be proved, not the Afghan people as a whole. We clearly affirmed at that conference that we regarded national resistance activities to get rid of foreign occupation and obtain self-determination, based on international legitimacy and U.N. Security Council resolutions as legitimate acts that can, in no way, be considered terrorism. At the same time, we made it a point to voice our categorical rejection of expanding the war in Afghanistan to engulf other Islamic States.

The second extraordinary conference took place in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, on April 01, 2002, at the invitation of its Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. It reaffirmed what had been agreed upon at the Doha conference and called for dealing with and remedying the real reasons underlying terrorism, holding an international conference under U.N. auspices to formulate an internationally agreed definition of terrorism and a joint organized response, of the international community to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and establish a ministerial committee on international terrorism, besides constantly endeavoring to maintain a common front as for the legitimacy of the struggle of people subjected to colonialism or alien domination, or foreign occupation, for national liberation and self-determination. Our present meeting may offer an opportunity to finalize the formation of its members by naming the States involved.

We held yet another extraordinary meeting in Doha, on December 10, 2001, at the invitation of His Highness Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa AI-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar, to discuss the grave situation obtaining all over the Palestinian territories. There, we adopted a number of stances. However, the rapid chain of events unfolding in Palestine, the enormity of the Israeli excesses, Israel’s failures to comply with the U.N. Security Council resolutions and other demands, of the international community left the situation in Palestine more than ever prone to various kinds of problems and crises. We have seen how, after the preliminary victories scored by the latest Intifadha, the events of September 11th last reflected negatively on the Palestinian national struggle, making it easy for Zionist circles to mar the image of that struggle until it relegated it to the level of’ “terrorism.” Despite international sympathy with the Palestinian people that reached its apex on the heels of Israel’s incursions and overrunning of West Bank territories, with all the massacres that were committed and are still being carried out in the process, which owed Israel and its politicians the accusation of perpetrating war crimes, Israel managed to evade a fair international probe of what it committed in the refugee camp in Jenin, after the United Nations decided and approved such an inquiry upon the request, with insistence, on the part of the UN Security Council and the OIC.