VZCZCXRO4817
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHGI RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH RUEHPW RUEHROV
DE RUEHKL #0775/01 2480109
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 040109Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1576
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 000775 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IO-RHS, DRL-MLGA, L-HRR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL ECON KIRF MY
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE OIC URGES MORE MALAYSIAN 
ENGAGEMENT 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: In meetings with GOM officials, local and 
international Islamic intellectuals, the Islamic  Development 
Bank and media, U.S. Special Envoy to the  Organization of 
the Islamic Conference (OIC) Sada Cumber described proposals 
for greater USG-OIC cooperation and dialogue.  He urged that 
Malaysia, as one of the more progressive and modern Islamic 
states, play a leadership role in efforts to promote mutual 
understanding and tolerance between the Muslim and non-Muslim 
worlds.  Cumber  laid out his hopes for agreement on an 
OIC-USG Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would broaden 
cooperation on development and good governance with a special 
emphasis on improving the status of women.  Foreign Minister 
Rais Yatim was receptive to the Special Envoy's proposal that 
the USG,  Malaysia and the OIC partner in holding a 
conference on media perceptions of Islam.  Women's, Family 
and Community Development Minister Ng Yen Yen promised to 
follow up on Cumber's proposals for U.S.-GOM cooperation on 
the proposed MOU initiatives.   End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of the 
Islamic Conference (OIC) Sada Cumber visited Kuala Lumpur 
August 14-17.  In all his meetings, Cumber explained his role 
and plans as Special Envoy.  He outlined a USG  proposal for 
an MOU with the OIC, a ten-year program focusing on 
education, science and technology, health, good governance 
and entrepreneurship, and described a U.S. effort to place 
virtual libraries with access to over 1  million publications 
in the OIC's ten poorest countries.   Cumber stressed that 
the main beneficiaries of these programs would be women. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In his meetings, Cumber stressed the need to promote 
tolerance and intra-faith dialogue among Muslims, in addition 
to fostering greater understanding between the  West and 
Muslims throughout the world.  He emphasized to all 
interlocutors that Malaysia should build on its  reputation 
as a modern, moderate and tolerant nation and  play a 
leadership role in these efforts.  In meetings with GOM 
officials, Cumber outlined his efforts to facilitate travel 
and immigration issues for Muslims entering the U.S., noting 
that it was the Malaysian ambassador in Washington who first 
brought his attention to these  problems.   He said he was 
working closely with the Department of Homeland Security to 
ensure Muslims were treated with respect and dignity at U.S. 
ports of entry and already had resolved a number of 
immigration cases involving Malaysians resident in the U.S. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In an August 14 meeting, Foreign Minister Rais 
expressed frustration at the slow pace of movementQ key 
issues faced by the OIC.  Rais said he would like to see the 
U.S. play a more substantive role in addressing the 
Palestinian-Israeli conflict but added that the "view from 
here" was that the U.S. always sided with Israel.  The 
Foreign Minister made only fleeting mention of his 
government's displeasure with the Department's recent 
statements on the Anwar Ibrahim case.  Rais was more forceful 
in underlining OIC's concerns regarding plans for an 
"Anti-Islamization Congress," reportedly slated to be  held 
by the "pro Koln" group in Cologne, Germany September  19-21. 
 He said "certain quarters" in the U.S. were  involved and 
asked if the USG could "turn off" any U.S.  participation. 
Turning to potential U.S.-Malaysian cooperation in the OIC, 
Rais suggested Cumber consider opportunities for the two 
countries to focus OIC members, attention on a small set of 
discrete economic projects. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) In regard to religious defamation issues, Cumber 
argued that making new laws was an ineffective strategy in 
attempting to deal with bigotry.  He noted his discussion 
with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Pakistan on the  need 
to work through these issues to reach solutions that did not 
restrict freedom of speech.  In addressing the real problem 
of anti-Muslim prejudice, Cumber proposed that the U.S., OIC, 
and Malaysia collaborate in ways to engage the media to 
explain the true meaning of Islam.  Rais said the West had to 
better understand Islam, but also acknowledged  that Muslims 
also had to accept other religions.   He agreed to Cumber's 
proposal to explore possible  U.S.-Malaysian-OIC 
collaboration on developing a conference  on such issues. 
Rais agreed to discuss these ideas further with Cumber at a 
side meeting at the UNGA in New York next month. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Cumber reported on some of the anticipated 
concrete results of his efforts to date,  including a 
U.S.-OIC agreement to exchange position papers in advance at 
the UN. He described plans for the Secretary to meet OIC 
Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in New York and to 
host an Iftar party at the UN for OIC ambassadors and Foreign 
Ministers in late September, as well as his  efforts to 
arrange a meeting between the OIC Secretary General and the 
 
KUALA LUMP 00000775  002 OF 003 
 
 
President. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In a meeting with Abdul Kadir, Foreign Policy 
Advisor in the Prime Minister's office, Cumber stressed that 
his initiatives would be funded by private sector 
contributions.   Kadir emphasized the obstacles in  obtaining 
approval for any programs within the loose OIC 
decision-making apparatus and noted Malaysia's efforts, 
during its recent tenure as chairman, to turn the 
organization more towards economic and development issues. 
Kadir urged that existing mechanisms such as the World 
Islamic Economic Forum and the World Halal forum be utilized 
as much as possible. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) In an August 15 meeting with  Women's, Family and 
Community Development Minister Ng Yen Yen, Cumber stressed 
his proposal's emphasis on addressing the status of women and 
emphasized the essential role of education in helping Islamic 
youth resist extremism.   Minister Ng cautioned that 
initiatives specifically addressed to problems in the " 
Islamic world" would encounter resistance and that, given 
the huge differences in viewpoints among the OIC countries, 
the terms of reference of such proposals had to be crafted 
carefully.   She added that no programs could be seen as 
infringing upon the realm of Shari'a law.  Ng said that the 
areas outlined in the U.S. blueprint closely paralleled the 
objectives of her own ministry and she looked forward to 
continuing to exchange ideas with the Special Envoy. 
Separate from OIC-related initiatives, Ng expressed 
willingness to look into the possibilities for GOM  bilateral 
cooperation with the Dubai Group. 
 
¶9.  (U) Cumber met with a variety of local and foreign media 
on Friday August 15.  He spoke at a press roundtable and did 
a taped interview with the host of a local current affairs 
television show.  At the end of the one-hour press 
roundtable, local media asked Cumber whether he had any 
comment on the Anwar Ibrahim case.  Cumber stated he had no 
comment other than to support recent statements by the 
Secretary of State and the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. 
Malay language daily "Utusan" ran a story on August 16 with 
the headline "U.S. watching Anwar case closely." Over the 
weekend, articles by AFP and AP appeared in the international 
press quoting Cumber with regard to Iran's role in the Middle 
East.  The AFP article, which was picked up by the Middle 
East Times, quoted Cumber as saying that "The United States 
is committed to securing a diplomatic resolution with Iran on 
the nuclear issue."  As noted  above, in the discussion with 
Cumber, Foreign Minister Rais only briefly and vaguely 
mentioned the Anwar case, but when meeting with the press 
immediately afterward Rais addressed the issue at length and 
the Anwar issue was the sole focus of the Malay language 
media's coverage of the meeting.  Rais reportedly told 
reporters that he was perplexed that Anwar had become the 
"darling" of the U.S. and added that "maybe we will have look 
into the reason the U.S. is wooing Anwar." 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  In his meeting with Mr. Ahmed Hariri, Director 
of the Islamic Development Bank's Kuala Lumpur regional 
office, Cumber pointed out that Muslim-majority countries 
cover 22% of the world's land mass, provide 75% of the 
world's natural resources as raw materials, yet generate less 
than 10% of global GDP.  He emphasized the important role of 
the Islamic Development Bank in helping  Muslim-majority 
countries achieve the level of development they deserve.  He 
made a specific plea to provide regular funding for the 
Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh which was 
built with OIC funds but is in a desperate state since its 
annual funding is done on a voluntary basis.  Cumber also 
lamented that, unlike the  U.S. where Muslims are integrated, 
Europe's 20 million Muslims were clustered and marginalized. 
He provided an  overview of USG-OIC Partnership Initiatives 
states which he said would be funded in large part by the 
private sector,  assuring Hariri that he had the contacts 
with the commitments to make it happen and only needed the 
MOU from  the OIC to implement it.  However, the OIC lacked 
the administrative apparatus to enter into such an agreement. 
  Hariri acknowledged the difficulties, explaining that 
member states generally send their retired politicians to the 
OIC, many of whom spend more time making their rounds at the 
Ka'bah in nearby Mecca than in their OIC offices in  Jeddah. 
Hariri agreed to look over the plan more closely,  pointing 
out that it seemed to have much in common with some of the 
programs of the Bank. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Cumber met with local and international Islamic 
intellectuals at a lunch hosted by the Ambassador.  He also 
took advantage of an unanticipated opportunity to address 
and briefly participate in an August 15 conference sponsored 
 
KUALA LUMP 00000775  003 OF 003 
 
 
by the Cordoba initiative that had brought together a number 
of prominent local and international Islamic intellectuals. 
Cumber told his audiences that the  25 million Muslims who 
live in freer societies in the U.S. and Europe should exert 
positive influence for the hundreds  of millions under more 
authoritarian regimes, to counter  the huge sums of 
petrodollars funding the expanding influence of the more 
extreme, repressive forms of Islam around the world.  Cumber 
stressed his message that  differences between 
Muslim-majority countries and the  United States were the 
result of a "clash of ignorance, not a clash of 
civilizations."  In lively exchanges with the local and 
visiting foreign Muslim intellectuals, there were the 
customary criticisms of U.S. policies in the Middle East, but 
also praise for Cumber's efforts to promote increased 
understanding and interaction not only between the U.S. and 
Muslims but among Muslims themselves. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  (Comment) S/E Cumber's meetings provoked 
particularly lively discussions by Malaysian standards, with 
his interlocutors intrigued by the functions of his new 
position, his own ethnic and religious background, and his 
message regarding issues that are close to home here.  One of 
the main concerns expressed, however, was whether  the S/E to 
the OIC post will be maintained following Cumber,s departure 
from the job.  Cumber expressed optimism that there would be 
bi-partisan support for the continuation of this position. 
 
¶13.  (U) This message has been cleared by Ambassador Cumber. 
 
 
 
KEITH