The 1969 Rabat Summit and the Founding of the OIC

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is an intergovernmental organization of 57 member states spanning four continents, founded at the first Islamic Summit Conference in Rabat, Morocco, from 22 to 25 September 1969. The conference was convened in direct response to an arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem earlier that year, an attack on one of Islam's holiest sites that brought Muslim-majority governments together in a coordinated diplomatic response rather than separate individual protests. No single individual founded the organization; it emerged from that conference of states acting jointly.

Headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the OIC is generally described as the second-largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations by membership, a scale that has made it the primary forum through which Muslim-majority states coordinate positions on shared concerns. It is led today by Secretary-General Hussein Ibrahim Taha, who has held the office since November 2021, heading the General Secretariat that carries out the organization's day to day diplomatic and administrative work across its 57 member governments.