ABSTRACT
The opening part of the present chapter will operate on two levels. It shall, as a credulous point of departure, seek to analyse the conceptual foundation of the OIC, namely the pan-Islamic body of believers. Tracing the conceptual genesis of the OIC in Islamic intellectual history, we shall seek to explore those themes of the Islamic theory of intercommunal relations (al-siyar) that allegedly sustain the OIC body politic. Establishing thus the discursive matrix of the OIC, we shall attempt to evaluate the extent to which the OIC can rightfully claim the lofty title of a pan-Islamic project. To this end, we shall turn, first, to a critical assessment of the historical milieu in which the OIC emerged and, second, to a critical reappraisal of the Charter of the Islamic Conference.
