D-8: Not much to boast about

Corresponding with the attitude of listlessness that the Muslim world generally adopts in the face of far-reaching global developments even if they were to have a strong bearing on it, none of the groupings of Muslim countries have an enviable record of achieving the goals for which they had been set up.
Mutual cooperation across the full spectrum of life, working in unison to resolve political issues affecting the Muslim world, remove the causes of their backwardness by actively promoting one another's development in the political, economic, commercial, scientific and military fields and, in course of time and through these joint efforts, succeed in forging Islamic unity - these high-sounding ideals, which the various organisations of Muslim nations have set before themselves to achieve and are endlessly verbalised at their annual or biennial concourses, have hardly moved beyond the rhetoric stage. At best, there is some initial perfunctory activity after every time they convene, but the leaders who hold out firm assurances of personal as well as political will to advance these causes when sitting together are suddenly overtaken by an inexplicable malady of inertia when out of the conference hall. Their political commitment evaporates and personal commitment to the uplift of the ummah wanes. Lofty gestures of generous financial allocation needed to run institutions serving the common good come to naught.
The record of declarations and the achievements flowing from them, whether of the Organisation of Muslim Conference with a membership of 54 states, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Rabita-e-Alam-e-Islami (the World Muslim Congress) or the Developing-Eight, are polls apart from each other.
D-8, an organisation of eight developing Muslim countries - Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey - is no exception. Meeting after meeting, old pledges are recounted in a manner to make them look afresh. The achievements are too small and, therefore, not much is said about the "progress" that is routinely reviewed. The leaders' addresses are spiced with clichés reflecting their concerns about the international issues, which have emerged since they last met.