By Alistair Thomson and Lamine Ghanmi
DAKAR (Reuters) - The leaders of the world's Muslim stateson Thursday criticized a rising wave of "Islamophobia" in theWest and pledged to combat Islamic extremism, which they saidwas partly to blame.
Heads of state of the Organization of the IslamicConference (OIC) met in Senegal for talks on making the57-nation body more effective in combating poverty in Muslimstates in Africa and Asia. But the talks were overshadowed byhostilities between two members, Chad and Sudan.
In an embarrassment for Senegalese President AbdoulayeWade, who billed the summit as a chance for a definitive peacedeal between the two neighbours, Chad accused Sudan oflaunching a rebel attack on its territory. Sudan called this"nonsense".
Chadian President Idriss Deby was due to meet his Sudanesecounterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday, but any lastingreconciliation seemed unlikely after Bashir failed to attendtalks the previous evening.
Efforts to revamp the OIC's unwieldy 40-article charteralso ran into problems after foreign ministers broke off theirdiscussions without agreement on Wednesday, despite havingextended their two days of talks by an extra day.
But delegates were unanimous in voicing fury at Israelimilitary strikes against Palestinian territories, and at thenegative portrayal of Islam and discrimination against Muslimsin the West.
"In our relations with the Western world, we are goingthrough difficult times," said OIC Secretary-General EkmeleddinIhsanoglu, calling for Israelis to be tried for war crimes.
"Ignorance about Islam and calculated animosity with deephistoric roots on the part of a minority in the West, as wellas our failure to defend the true values of Islam, are thereason for the increasing wave of Islamophobia."
Caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad printed by Europeannewspapers have sparked anger across the Muslim world. Somewestern human rights groups have accused the OIC of trying tolimit freedom of expression and belief.
"Should freedom of expression mean freedom to blaspheme?There is no such thing as limitless freedom," Wade tolddelegates, while criticising those who carried out attacks inthe name of Islam: "They deserve only our contempt."
AFRICA SEEKS ARAB AID
criticized as being ineffective and bureaucratic, OICofficials hope revamping the body's charter can speed decisionmaking and commit wealthy oil-rich Arab states to fosterdevelopment in poor regions like sub-Saharan Africa, where alQaeda extremists are gaining a foothold.
A key reform would allow decisions to be taken by atwo-thirds majority, instead of by unanimity -- which hasproven difficult in a diverse body grouping a quarter of theworld's population spread across Africa, Asia and the MiddleEast.
Founded in 1969, the Organization has decided at pastsummits to establish an Islamic peacekeeping force, university,common market, and investment fund, but most of these decisionshave never been implemented.
A $10 billion fund for Islamic development set up by theOrganization has so far received pledges for only $2.6 billion.
"We are on the point of adopting the charter and we hopethis adoption will come today," Wade said. "It's up to theheads of state to make the decision."
Some members are pushing to make OIC membership conditionalon a state having a "majority" Muslim population, but this hasbeen resisted by mixed-religion nations like Uganda.
Pakistan was also insisting the new charter should makepotential members resolve their conflicts with existing membersbefore being allowed to join -- reflecting its long-runningdispute with neighbour India over the Kashmir region.
With several prominent leaders not present -- from SaudiArabia's King Abdullah to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi andPakistan's Pervez Musharraf -- some delegates had called for adecision on the charter to be postponed until a Cairo summit inthree years.
(Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
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