UK envoy says Muslim states have vital anti-terror role

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Muslim states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have a “valuable role” in preventing extremism, a British diplomat said Thursday.

Matthew Rycroft, the U.K.’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the 57-country bloc was important “in building an even stronger consensus around the UN’s work to prevent violent extremism”.

Rycroft also said the U.K. was clear about tackling violent extremism in all its forms.

His remarks, carried in a statement, came at a speech at the UN Security Council in New York to mark the election of Yusuf al-Othaimeen as new OIC president.

“The OIC states are key partners in this fight, and I want to set out today three ways where our cooperation can help counter these ideologies,” the ambassador added.

Underlining how OIC and UN states faced the “growing threat of extremist ideologies and violent extremism,” the ambassador said some Muslim countries were more affected by this challenge than others:

“Sadly...this threat affects Muslim-majority states in a truly disproportionate way -- in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in so many places.”

“The fact that these evil groups claim to represent Islam only makes this reality even more sickening,” he added.

Rycroft emphasized the value of the role that OIC states played in building an even-stronger consensus around the UN’s work to prevent violent extremism.

“Together we can make the UN system better at understanding and tackling the root causes of terrorism, including by addressing violent extremism narratives,” he said.

The OIC elected Yusuf al-Othaimeen, a former Saudi minister of social affairs, as the OIC’s new secretary-general Thursday.