Erdogan urges Muslim countries to unite against terror

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslim countries to take a joint stand against terrorist organizations.

Addressing the closing session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Fifth Islamic Conference of Health Ministers in Istanbul on Thursday, Erdogan said: “We should, hand in hand, have a clear and principled stand against organizations such as Daesh, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram that do the greatest harm to Muslims by using the name of Islam”.

The Turkish president noted that Muslim countries represented at the G20 summit in Turkey earlier this week had reached an agreement to jointly fight against “radical movements”.

Erdogan said that "notions of Islam, Muslim, Mujahid and Shariah" must be saved from being abused by terrorists.

"We must together foil the games of powers that shed the blood of Muslims, who insult them [Muslims] and [we must] cast a shadow on the future of such organizations and such notions," he said.

“At this point, a very important responsibility falls to countries represented at the structure of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. As Muslims our responsibility is very big,” he added.

Noting that the Muslim world and Muslim societies were at the center of refugee crisis as well as terrorism, Erdogan said: “Reactions against terrorism and problems caused by the growing refugee crisis are turned to all of Muslim world and all Muslims.

“While the humanitarian tragedy continues in our region, especially in Syria, we are now facing the rise of racist attitudes and hate crimes against Muslims,” he added.

Erdogan also maintained that the honor of the entire world's Muslims should not be left to a “handful of terrorists”.

The president added that Turkey was taking care of health needs of “2.5 million brothers and sisters from Syria and Iraq”.

In his address to the conference, OIC Secretary-General Iyad Madani thanked Turkey for embracing millions of Syrians.