The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will soon launch a satellite television channel to be named as “OIC” to counter Islamophobia, the prejudice against and hatred or irrational fear of Islam or Muslims.
Though the term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, it came into common usage mainly in the West after the 9/11 terror strikes in the United States. The 57-member group of Islamic nations is also planning to establish an “OIC Muslim Journalists Union”.
These issues with preparing special information programme on Africa “to project and promote its place and role in the Muslim world” and the progress made pertaining to the establishment of the OIC Broadcasting Regulatory Authorities Union came up for threadbare discussions at the senior officials’ meeting ahead of the ninth session of the Islamic conference of information ministers scheduled to begin in Libreville, the capital of west central African country of Gabon, on Thursday.
The officials meeting on Tuesday opened with the statements by the representative of Morocco, the chair of the eighth session, that of Gabon, the chair of the ninth session, and the representative of the OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, followed by the election of members of the bureau and adoption of the agenda and work programme.
The meeting also discussed the role of the OIC in supporting the causes of Al-Quds and the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site of Islam located in the old city of Jerusalem, developing an integrated information plan to communicate with the non-OIC member states, and launching an Islamic TV channel.