CIOG honours top Islamic official

Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) President Fazeel Ferouz on Tuesday honoured Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) General Secretary Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who is currently on a two-day visit in Guyana.

Ferouz presented Dr Ihsanoglu with an award following his arrival in Guyana. The award was presented at the CIOG’s headquarters in Woolford Avenue, Georgetown. Dr Ihsanoglu is accompanied by a five-member delegation, which includes his wife, Fusun Ihsanoglu.

Meanwhile, a release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that, as part of his visit, Dr Ihsanoglu will pay courtesy calls on President Donald Ramotar, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.

Following a meeting with the president, the secretary general will be presented with a plaque in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the OIC during his tenure. The secretary general will also meet with CIOG representatives and will have an interactive session with representatives of the Inter-faith Community in Guyana.

Dr Ihsanoglu, of Turkey, is the first democratically-elected secretary general of the OIC. He was re-elected for a second term of office in 2008. Since he took the office as the ninth secretary general in January 2005, he has taken serious steps to make the 57-member organisation a more effective body.

Dr Ihsanoglu is known for his contributions to scholarly debates on inter-cultural dialogues and, with his institutional and personal initiatives, he has earned recognition at intellectual circles as a leading contributor to rapprochement among various cultures, particularly between the Muslim and Western worlds.

Guyana was first granted observer status within the OIC on September 27, 1995 and became a member on October 1, 1998. Guyana and Suriname are the only two countries in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) which are members of the OIC.

Dr Ihsanoglu recently concluded a historic first visit to Suriname to bring that country into the fold of cooperation under the OIC projects, particularly in the field of economic development. The CIOG said it hopes that the visit to Guyana would help strengthen the bilateral relationship between the OIC and Guyana.

The OIC is one of the world’s largest inter-governmental bodies involved in the promotion of global peace and harmony.

It is a multilateral organisation of 57 countries from mainly Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The OIC includes many rich nations such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Brunei Darussalam, Gabon, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is an organ of the OIC of which Suriname is also a member.

Guyana’s ambassador to the OIC, Dr Odeen Ishmael said the visit of the OIC secretary general to Guyana is of great significance since it will place the Guyana in the spotlight in all the member states of the organisation.