On December 9, 2005 BBC News reported, "Leaders of 57 Muslim countries have ended their summit with a warning that the Islamic world is in crisis because of the threat posed by terrorism. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference statement urges decisive action to fight 'deviant ideas'. The meeting in the holy Muslim city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia called for changes in national laws to criminalise financing and incitement of terrorism. It also called for new school curricula to purge extremist ideas. The declaration also said that fatwas, or Islamic religious edicts, must only be issued by those who are authorised to do so. The BBC's Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst, Roger Hardy, says Muslims attending the Mecca summit heard some heady rhetoric. The event was hailed as a turning-point, a moment of Muslim renaissance. Using rather more mundane language, some called it a summit of moderation and modernisation."

This article cross-posted at the Pluralism Project's International Religious Diversity News. Read more there on the subject of Moderate and Extremist Islam Collide.