MAKKAH, December 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) opened in Makkah Wednesday, December 7, with a Saudi call for unity, tolerance, moderation and rejection of extremism.

"Islamic unity would not be reached through bloodshed as claimed by the deviants," Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz told the opening session of the two-day summit, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

King Abdullah, whose country hosts the 57-member OIC's headquarters, said extremists have hijacked the Islamic faith.

"It bleeds the heart of a believer to see how this glorious civilization has fallen from the height of glory to the ravine of frailty, and how its thoughts were hijacked by devilish and criminal gangs that spread havoc on earth," Abdullah said.

King Abdullah further called upon the Islamic jurisprudence arm of the pan-Muslim body to "fulfill its historic role of combating terrorism."

He also urged a reform of educational programs in the Muslim countries, which have been under mounting US pressures for changing school textbooks that Washington deemed intolerant.

"Developing the curriculum is essential to building a tolerant Muslim identity ... and to having a society that rejects isolation," he said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, whose country holds the OIC chair, said Muslims across the world were in a state of disunity and discord which was worse than an any time in 14 centuries of Islamic history, Reuters said.

"Muslims of the present age appear hopelessly divided," Badawi told the opening session."...We can no longer afford to be in a state of denial."

Badawi stressed that the Muslim world is "faced with grave problems that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

"We can no longer neglect these problems or expect others to solve them for us," he said.

He went on: "Thousands of our brothers and sisters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Sudan and similar places, are living in fear under threats of war and violence," he said.

"Many more are living under threats of poverty and backwardness."

OIC Secretary-General Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu said in a speech which also portrayed the Muslim world confronting one of "the most critical eras of its history."

"We don't have the luxury of blaming others for our own problems," he said. "helpless-ness, dispossession, marginalization, all of these lead to the growth and spread of extremist ideas," Reuters quoted him as saying.

The OIC summit also deals with means to breathe new life into the pan-Muslim organization, which has been largely ineffectual since it was set up 36 years ago.

Algerian presidential representative, Abdulaziz Belkhadem, said reform of the OIC's charter had not been updated in 36 years, adding: "The current era is full of challenges and Muslim nations must rise to these challenges".

OIC foreign ministers held a preparatory meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, December 6, to draft the agenda of the summit, which is expected to adopt two main documents: a "Makkah Declaration" and a 10-year "plan of action to confront the challenges of the 21st century".

The plan was prepared for the first time by prominent Muslim scholars.

The Islamic leaders are also expected to approve a name change for the body to become the Organization of Islamic Countries.

It groups Muslim nations in the Middle East, North and West Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent in addition to Albania, Guyana, and Surinam.

In March 1970, the first meeting for OIC foreign ministers was held in Jeddah.