Muslims worldwide must protect their communities from dangers such as terrorism and racism, which threaten to bring down Islamic communities from the inside, warned Turkey's president on Tuesday.
"Racism, nationalism, sectarianism, and terror disturbances in particular have become issues which could lead to the fall of the Islamic world from within," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, addressing via video link an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting sponsored by Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate.
Decrying how an average of 1,000 Muslims "worldwide fall victim to terror or violence every day," Erdoğan stated: "As Muslims we face many complex problems such as terror, hunger, and inequality due to ignorance and domestic conflicts."
He called on OIC members to "never allow for everyday political arguments to overshadow our understanding of the ummah [Muslim community] or harm the fellowship among us."
Stressing that many of the problems Muslims confront in social life are "due to a misunderstanding and mistaken teaching of Islam," Erdoğan stressed the need to form "a strong and steadfast bond between the universality of our religion and the realities of everyday life."
