‘Muslim world set to form powerful bloc’

Secretary General of the International Islamic Awakening Conference Ali Akbar Velayati says the Muslim world is set to become a global power bloc.

“Considering the current Islamic Awakening trend, the Muslim world will turn into a powerful bloc in the future,” Velayati said at a Tuesday meeting in the Iranian capital city, Tehran.

“The golden age of the US has come to an end; they cannot even be accountable for what has happened in their country,” IRNA quoted him as saying.

The senior Iranian official was making reference to the anti-capitalism Occupy movement which emerged in the US after demonstrators staged an occupy protest rally in New York’s financial district on September 17.

Despite police harassment and mass arrests, the Occupy protests have spread to other major US cities as well as other capitalist countries such as Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal.

“Under the existing circumstances, not only have the Western countries faced problems in economic aspects, but also their officials are not accountable to their own people regarding the political areas,” Velayati pointed out.

“The Islamic countries no longer tolerate any colonialism and dictatorship of the West; moreover, the Western countries are not as strong as they were before in wanting to bully the Middle Eastern countries,” he added.

Since early 2011, a wave of popular uprisings has spread across the Arab world. The growing Islamic Awakening movement has so far led to three regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.