KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 ― Fears that the inaugural Kuala Lumpur Summit mooted by Malaysia would divide the Muslim world have been disproven, its architect Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad asserted today at the end of the four-day affair.

The Malaysian prime minister who is also chairman of the KL Summit 2019 chairman said it should be obvious to critics that the gathering of Muslim world leaders here is not meant as a slight to any other similar platform.

“Admittedly, some had misunderstood our intentions, intentionally or otherwise, some had felt slighted while a few were suspicious,” Dr Mahathir said in his closing remark.

“By now, I am sure it is obvious that the negative opinions were misplaced and not justified.

“We are not here to replace any other Muslim platforms, neither are we intending to create different categories or classes of Muslim nations nor to undermine others,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has criticised the KL Summit as divisive, and insisted that any initiative involving Islam should have gone through the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), headquartered in Jeddah.

The attack followed the oil-rich kingdom's snub of Malaysia's invitation to the gathering. Three of its rivals ― Iran, Turkey, and Qatar ― had attended the four-day meeting.

Putrajaya denied the summit is intended to rival the OIC.

In his concluding remark, Dr Mahathir defended the summit as a congregation to look into areas for possible collaborations.

“To establish collaborations that will first benefit the nations involved and then taken onto a bigger platform and collaboration to benefit the Muslim world as a whole,” he said.

The summit was born from discussions with leaders from Turkey, Iran and Qatar, who the Malaysian prime minister said saw the need for a multilateral pact to address “problems confronting the ummah”.

This included ways to elevate the status of Muslims. Dr Mahathir said espite forming a quarter of the global population, most remain poor and under-developed.

“We share the sentiments that for these efforts to work we need to keep the initial group small,” the prime minister said in his closing remark.

 “So that we can pursue the objectives immediately without having to be distracted by too many opinions and conditions.”

To date, 18 successful exchange of instruments were signed in the course of four days, Dr Mahathir added.

Areas of collaboration included advanced hi-technology; media collaboration; centre of excellence; food security and youth leadership and exchange programmes.

“There are several more in the pipeline which are being worked out resulting from discussions during this summit,” Dr Mahathir said.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/12/21/dr-m-critics-fears-misplaced-kl-summit-didnt-undermine-any-muslim-nation/1821226