You read the title correctly: Saudi Arabia has been working to develop a coalition to fight terrorism with 41 other Muslim countries. The new organization, originally discussed in December 2015, ran a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. They will have their first formal meeting as an organization, the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, today (Sunday).

The IMCTC announced their approach in May 2017 to understanding and fighting terrorism:

• The causes of terrorism and extremism are not solely religious, but also personal, social, and political. All these causes need to be dealt with by preparing an appropriate ground on both social and political levels.
• The wars and civil strife are also considered one of the causes of terrorism and extremism and an important source to attract terrorist organizations.
• Terrorism does not emerge from Islamic countries only, but also from non-Islamic countries. Therefore, all countries around the world must unite their dealing mechanisms and common perspectives and share intelligence information among them in order to combat terrorism.
• The integrated intellectual, communicational, social and military approach the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia adopted in countering terrorism is considered a role model worldwide.
• The world should also prepare for post-Daesh-defeat phase given the enormous defeats this terrorist organization is facing and the importance of undermining any attempts by the organization to reposition itself.
• IMCTC, led by KSA, is a qualitative step in the field of countering terrorism during the last few years, especially due to incapability of any country to face terrorism all alone.

I found this list pretty impressive. The latest announcement cited “a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations whatever their sect and name which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorize the innocent”; this statement suggests that not only are all terrorist groups put on notice, but all sects of Islam should be protected. The membership list is here. Noticeably, but not surprisingly, Syria and Iran are missing, as is Iraq, although Saudi Arabia is working to develop a working relationship with Iraqis.