The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on August 16 suspended Syria’s membership at a summit of Muslim leaders in Makkah, citing President Bashar Assad’s violent suppression of the Syrian revolt. In a closing statement, the OIC also decided to take to the United Nations the issue of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingyas, displaced by deadly sectarian violence. It described as a “crime against humanity” the Myanmar government’s handling of minority Muslims and reiterated support for the Palestinians.
OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a news conference the decision sent “a strong message from the Muslim world to the Syrian regime.”c”This world can no longer accept a regime that massacres its people using planes, tanks and heavy artillery,” he added. It was “also a message to the international community stating that the Muslim world backs a peaceful solution (in Syria), wants an end to the bloodshed and refuses to let the problem degenerate into a religious conflict and spill over” into the wider region, Ihsanoglu said.