KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — Islamic countries must explore reforms to its Shariah-compliant financial sector to help provide funds needed to address humanitarian crises that primarily come from Muslim nations, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah said today.

Speaking during his keynote address at the gala dinner of the World Islamic Economic Forum, the Perak Sultan said it was no longer an option to ignore the social problems and risks that stem from the strife within Islam’s heartland in the Middle East.

“More than 60 million people are now displaced by conflicts. Of the ongoing humanitarian crises in the world today, 90 per cent are in OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) countries.

“Of the 33 active conflicts today, 31 are in Muslim-majority countries. Yet the majority of humanitarian funding comes from OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries,” Sultan Nazrin said in his speech.

The OIC represents 57 Islamic member states and professes to be the “collective voice of the Muslim world” while the OECD is a grouping of 34 developed Western countries. The memberships of the two are mutually exclusive save for Turkey, which is a part of both groups.

Citing the emotive story of Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi who made international news after he drowned in Mediterranean in a reported attempt to seek asylum in Canada, the Perak ruler said such stories will become more frequent unless Muslim nations do their part to help address the gap in humanitarian funding.

Sultan Nazrin pointed out although the international community jointly contributed US$24.5 billion for compassionate aid in 2014, the amount was still US$7.5 billion less than what the United Nations needed to fully finance aid operations.

“We all need to recalibrate our moral compass. We need to return to what I believe to be Islam’s five core principles: of solidarity through Tawhid and unity, of universality through Fitrah and human dignity, of social empowerment and doing good through stewardship or Khilafah, of social justice through Adil, and lastly, of transforming relationships and compassion through Rahman and Rahim,” he said.

Specifically, Sultan Nazrin, who is co-chair of the UN High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, pointed out that while Islamic finance was developing quickly, Islamic social finance remained “surprisingly” underexplored.

He highlighted how, despite Islamic Development Bank statistics showing that there was an estimated US$600 billion in zakat (Muslim tithe) available for humanitarian aid, there was no Shariah compliant mechanism or body through which to divert the funds for the purpose.

“Imagine, ladies and gentlemen, if only 1 per cent of this fund is made available, it can easily meet the global funding deficit for 2015!” Sultan Nazrin said.

Nations, Muslim or otherwise, no longer have the option of ignoring the burgeoning crises as the cost of allowing these to fester will outstrip whatever political and economic costs that are incurred to address these now, he explained.

Aside from decades old and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the region is currently experiencing a large scale refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war.

An estimated four million refugees have fled the country and into neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, with some venturing farther into Europe, the Caucasus, and the Americas.

Malaysia has also offered to take in 3,000 Syrian refugees, following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s offer made during the UN General Assembly last month.