Religion unites believers, but spiritual likeness does not always equal shared political interests of representatives of a certain religion or their countries.
The Islamic world and ideas of Muslim consolidation
In the past, Islam often became the ideological justification for the aggressive policies of imperial entities (including the Arab Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire). In recent history, Islam has often determined the political ideology of theocratic regimes (for example, in Iran and Afghanistan). Islam has a fairly high influence in the modern monarchical regimes of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, as well as in secular and democratic Türkiye.
The renaissance of Islam as a spiritual element is objectively gaining momentum in the Muslim countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (including the national subjects of the Russian Federation), taking into account the period of militant atheism in the Soviet era. The politicisation of Islam and religious extremism were noted in local and civil conflicts in the post-Soviet space with active external intervention (e.g. Karabakh conflict, civil war in Chechnya). There were cases of Islamic opposition parties forming with the aim of changing the secular regime in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Unfortunately, under the influence of clerical forces from the countries of the former Soviet Union, radical Muslims were recruited to international terrorist organisations (including Al-Qaeda* and ISIL*, organisations banned in Russia).
Meanwhile, the Islamic world itself has a rather diverse political landscape, including two different currents (Sunnism and Shiism), various schools (madhhabs) and orders. Such objective diversity often generates intra-Islamic contradictions in religious and political contexts.
The Islamic world recognises the commonality of spiritual centres sacred to every Muslim (Mecca and Medina). At the same time, the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, the Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala and the Fatima Shrine in Qom are also of high value to Shi’as, however Sunnis value the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus instead. Unlike Shi’as, Sunnis do not make pilgrimages to the graves of Shi’as imams.
The Islamic world does not, in fact, have a single and universally recognised political centre. In this context, visible and hidden competition between three important Islamic states persists, namely Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Iran. Nevertheless, there are various international Islamic institutions.
A key institution is the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which holds high-level summits regularly. It cannot be said that the participants of the OIC forums always reach consensus on all issues discussed; often the vote expresses their political rather than religious interests.
For example, for a number of years, while the Karabakh issue was hot, Azerbaijan tried to spin the conflict from a religious angle within the framework of the OIC and accused Armenia, but was not supported by Iran and a number of Arab states (e.g. Syria, UAE, Lebanon). A similar situation developed with regard to the Chechen conflict, when Türkiye tried to accuse Russia of conducting a religious war. In other words, the political commitment and religious community of OIC members often come into conflict.
Failed anti-Israeli consolidation in the Islamic world
At the June 21-22 OIC Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Istanbul, the topic of Israel became decisive. Furthermore, during those days the Israeli-Iranian conflict was ongoing.
It is no secret that most Islamic countries condemn Israel for its aggressive war against the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Iran. In terms of loud, anti-Israeli rhetoric it is difficult to find an equal to Turkish President Erdogan. It is also no secret that most Islamic countries have not gone beyond anti-Israeli statements, condemnations and declaring concerns.
The only exception was Iran, which tried to create an Islamic resistance front in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In reality, this front consisted of pro-Iranian militant groups of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. However, some Arab countries did not support Iran during the air attacks on Israel; on the contrary, in June 2025, they opened their skies to the Israeli Air Force on their way to Iran (in particular Jordan, Iraq, Syria).
This is understandable, since the richest countries of the Arab Middle East remain US allies, are interested in exporting their oil and gas to world markets and house US military bases on their territory. Accordingly, they can by definition not become military opponents of the United States and Israel.
In this regard, President Erdogan’s proposal to create an anti-Israeli ‘Islamic union’ by OIC members, made by Türkiye at the aforementioned summit in Istanbul, was obviously declarative in character. Turkish expert Mehmet Ali Guller rightly argues that “such an alliance is impossible due to ideological and political contradictions between Islamic countries, many of which cooperate with the United States, despite the rhetoric against Israel”.
Thus, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood* organisation does not support Iran in the conflict with Israel. There are no real step coming from Arab countries in support of Gaza (Latin American and African countries actually surpass the Islamic world in this matter).
To confront Israel, Mehmet Ali Guller suggests replacing the religious undertones with geopolitical ones and creating an ‘anti-imperialist (or, more precisely, anti-American) alliance’ in the Global South, which will advocate the withdrawal of US military bases from the Middle East. However, this option is most likely unacceptable for Islamic countries that are allies and partners of the United States (including NATO member Türkiye). It is hard to imagine that Türkiye would advocate US withdrawal from the US Incirlik Air Base – that would be like Ankara announcing its withdrawal from the NATO bloc.
Thus, those declarations of consolidation remain faraway dreams incompatible with reality.
* – organisations banned in Russia
Alexander Svarants – Doctor of Political Science, Professor, Turkologist, expert on the Middle East
