Fact Check: Viral message claiming OIC expelled Imran Khan for criticizing Ayodhya Ram mandir is False

The viral message further states that the representative from the United Arab Emirates, the President of Maldives, and the King of Saudi Arabia spoke in favour of India and Hinduism. They rebuked Pakistan for regularly commenting on India's internal issues, it said.

Fact Check

The claim is false.

The viral message includes a WION link. We clicked on the link and found a news report titled "Organisation of Islamic Cooperation snubs Pakistan on Kashmir again" published on 26 November 2020.

It read, "After the United Nations, the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has now been snubbed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which is the largest alliance of Muslim countries as it has decided to not discuss Kashmir. For months, Pakistan has been demanding discussion on Kashmir and wanted the OIC to raise the issue. It wanted its members to join its propaganda drive against India, however, the OIC has snubbed Pakistan."

The report did not mention the Ayodhya Ram mandir or Imran Khan being expelled by OIC.

Taking a cue from this, NewsMeter checked the website of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. According to the information available on the website, "The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second-largest organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 states spread over four continents. The Organization is the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavors to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world."

From this, we can clarify that the viral message wrongly mentions the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as Conference of Islamic Countries.

The report further said, "On the occasion of the 14th session of the Islamic summit conference, Pakistan wanted Kashmir mentioned in the Mecca declaration, however, the request was denied, then, Pakistan began a campaign demanding an extraordinary session of OIC foreign ministers but it didn't happen instead something extraordinary happened - the OIC extended an invite to Sushma Swaraj last year. In March 2019, the then external affairs minister addressed the foreign ministers meeting in Abu Dhabi, but Pakistan boycotted the session but it didn't stop pursuing a hearing at OIC but it hasn't got one. The reason is the lack of support for Pakistan within the OIC."

The viral message said that the OIC meeting was attended by representatives of the United Arab Emirates, the President of Maldives, and the King of Saudi Arabia. However, we found it to be false as the meeting was only attended by the foreign ministers

1. Minister of foreign affairs of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud attended the meet

We found a tweet by the official handle of OIC from 7 June 2020. It read, "#OIC General Secretariat will hold a virtual open-ended extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers on 10 June 2020 to discuss the #Israeli occupation's threat to annex parts of the territory of the State of Palestine was occupied in 1967. The meeting will be chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of #SaudiArabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Chair of the Executive Committee, with participation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, members of the Executive Committee & the Member States & OIC Secretary General."

A report by the OIC of the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers stated that Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, minister of foreign affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, had attended the meet and not the king of Saudi. (Click here to view the full report.)

Nowhere in his speech did he mention anything that supported the claims made in the viral message.

2. Minister of foreign affairs, Maldives, attended the meeting and not the President of Maldives

According to the official website of the government of Maldives, it was the minister of foreign affairs, Abdulla Shahid who attended the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in November 2020.

3. Pak foreign minister attended the OIC meeting

Meanwhile, according to a report by Radio Pakistan from 26 November 2020, "Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has arrived in Niger to represent Pakistan at the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting."

It is evident that the claim made through the viral message is false. The link mentioned in the viral message was related to the Kashmir issue and not OIC expelling Imran Khan. Also, the OIC meet was attended by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Maldives, and Pakistan. The OIC meeting did not discuss anything related to the Ayodhya Ram mandir.