Hawzah News Agency - With the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hitting the half-century mark, there is a need for it to engage in introspection as the Muslim world needs committed leadership, said an OIC commissioner.

The Muslim world has been denied such leadership ever since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but a recently announced initiative between Turkey, Malaysia, and Pakistan raises hope and shows the way forward, said Ahmad Azam Ab Rahman.

“The Muslim Ummah [nation] is a body without a head,” he told Anadolu Agency in an interview during a trip to Turkey.

A prominent Muslim activist from Malaysia, Ahmad Azam was elected one of 18 commissioners to the OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) early this year.

“Muslims are facing a lot of problems. They cannot be resolved because there is no leadership,” he said, referring to the issues of Palestine, Kashmir, the Moros, Patani, the Rohingya and Uighurs.

He said the question of human rights in these regions is "clearly transgression without doubt."

“[But] still, the [Muslim] Ummah is not united on this issue [of human rights]. It is time we must look back to the role of the OIC,” he said.

“By looking at the 50 years of the OIC, politically, it seems to be very, very weak,” he asserted.

However, Ahmad Azam believes the multi-lateral Muslim body should not be judged in terms of politics only.

“Other than politics, I think it has not been given due credit like in education, culture, Halal projects … It has done really something substantial.”