Mecca, Saudi Arabia - Leaders of more than 50 Islamic countries at a summit in Mecca called by Saudi Arabia's ruler, King Abdullah, adopted an ambitious plan to combat extremism and poverty throughout the Muslim world yesterday.
The summit was prompted by an admission that Muslim societies had fallen into a deep malaise. "The Islamic nation is in a crisis," the leaders said in a final statement. "We need decisive action to fight deviant ideas because they are the justification of terrorism. There is a need to confront deviant ideology wherever it appears, including in school curriculums. Islam is the religion of diversity and tolerance."
The plan seeks to address what many see as the root causes of terrorism by "aggressively" confronting extremist rhetoric, including fatwas by unqualified clerics, promoting dialogue with other religions and fostering economic development in the poorer Muslim countries.
Other aspects of the plan involve countering Islamophobia and setting up an Islamic fund to provide swift relief for natural disasters.
As a vehicle for this action plan, King Abdullah is trying to breathe new life into the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), under whose auspices the summit was held. Founded in 1969, it is the world's largest Muslim body, with 57 member states, but has hitherto served mainly as a talking shop.
Though some observers remained sceptical yesterday, Saudi officials said King Abdullah, in his religious role as Custodian of the Two Holy Shrines, has decided to give a moral lead. They also pointed out that high oil prices had brought cash windfalls for Saudi Arabia which the king intended to use to push the plan forward.
There is also no doubt that many Muslim leaders have been shaken by Islamist militancy. One Saudi working paper at the summit, seen by the Guardian, conceded that "an endemic problem currently exists in the Muslim world".
In what for the Saudis was extraordinarily frank language, it continued: "A vast majority of Muslim countries today face political, economic and social underdevelopment that has evolved into a major crisis. With the growing signs of displeasure and unrest from those suffering under poor national governance across the Muslim world, it is crucial for Muslim leaders to find viable solutions to the problems they are confronting."
The document also lamented the inability of Muslims to prevent the invasion of Iraq "or in the aftermath to influence the peace" and said King Abdullah had been "shocked by the inaction of Muslim governments" in response to the recent Pakistani earthquake.
The average income in Muslim countries is $1,000 (£570) a year, a fifth of that for the rest of the world, Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, told the summit. In 19 of the OIC's member countries, half of the adult population is illiterate.
Though many seemed ready to concede some responsibility for these failures, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pointed a finger at "malicious adversaries" victimising Muslim countries but called on OIC member governments to build "trustful relations" with their people.