Visions of Islamic solidarity during the Cold War: Iran and the Rabat Summit Conference of 1969

The first Islamic Summit Conference was one of the most significant gatherings of Islamic nations in the post-Second World War period. Held in Rabat in September 1969, the conference was organized in the aftermath of an arson attack at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of the holiest sites in Islam which had been under Israeli occupation since the Arab defeat in the Six-Day War of June 1967. Although the conference was initially conceived to discuss a collective response to this attack, the conservative states, including Iran, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, used the occasion to challenge Nasser’s Pan-Arab nationalism. They proposed the creation of an Islamic bloc; a non-radical alternative to Nasserism, which would be under their leadership and in which they could promote a more moderate discourse. This paper explores the evolution of the idea of Islamic solidarity, which these conservative states had been endorsing throughout the 1960s and which formed the basis of the Rabat Conference. Focusing on Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the paper argues that Iran adopted the language of Afro-Asian solidarity, and Islamic unity, but never embraced the spirit of these movements. Instead, Iran’s embracing of Islamic unity was motivated primarily by practical concerns and strategic calculations.