UNITED NATIONS :  Jerusalem has been picked as the capital of Islamic tourism for 2016 by the OIC, say media reports, citing a Palestinian minister.  Mahmoud Habbash, Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs, said the decision was another step towards breaking Israel's siege of Islamic holy sites. He accused Israel of hiding the Islamic identity of Jerusalem and said that "Jerusalem is the religious and political capital of Palestine," the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, consisting of 57 member states, held its first international summit on Islamic tourism in Indonesia earlier this week.