Religious tolerance - Inter/intra religious peaceful coexistence

Some countries around the world are faced with religious tensions and violence while we, in Ghana here, are enjoying our peace because we are not confronted with any religious upheavals.

In Ghana, we have practitioners of African traditional religions, Muslims, Christians, and adherents of other faiths. I always pray that we continue to maintain the status quo that allows peace to still prevail among us.

Desecrating places considered to be holy or making caricatures of respected persons or destroying religious materials intentionally is sacrilegious and may provoke tensions, so they must be discarded.

We are well informed about the skirmishes and wars which were fought between different religious bodies or factions that ended up with fatalities and also destroyed properties.

The democracy being practiced in Western countries is an applaudable governance system that most nations seem to envy. However, there are certain negative aspects of the system which when corrected would help to make that democracy without blemish.

I like the way internal politics is administered in the West because there are measures put in place to make sure every citizen operates within the confines of the rule of law. But I despise their foreign policies because they are crafted to benefit themselves to the detriment of weaker nations.

Because of the vast advancement in science and technology in the world today, the world is described as a global village. It has brought all of us very closer, for us to become each other’s keepers. This stride, among other things, means that when we make laws in our respective countries, we must consider its effect or influence on our neighbors across the globe.

For instance, when a country makes a law that gives its citizens the right to burn the Bible, or any other religious material for that matter, the effect of burning them may be felt outside the country and it may cause mayhem. It, therefore, behooves lawmakers everywhere in the world to make laws that are not provocative.

The Qur'an has suffered destruction on many occasions from non-Muslims. Burning of the Qur'an is one of the barbaric acts in primitive periods when injustice was the order of the day. Today, civilization has advanced extensively, and it baffles many civilized societies to think about some people who say they are civilized but at the same time they burn the Qur'an and other scriptures.

Sometimes it is not surprising to see some people defile the Qur'an, the Bible, etc. out of depression or insanity. They may not be blamed because of their unstable mental condition. However, when a competent court of jurisdiction gives an order for the Qur'an to be burnt, a concerned person may not be at fault to think that the court order was given maliciously.

It is unfortunate to notice that a court in Sweden relied on the freedom of expression in that country to allow its citizen to burn the Qur'an.

What is the purpose of burning the Qur'an when a Muslim child can reproduce the entire Qur'an from memory within an hour or a few hours? Even after burning the Qur'an, you can also still find it in your pockets on your smartphones. We cannot be far from the truth when we suspect that the burning of the Qur'an is perpetrated as a result of hatred for Islam.

Islam does not deserve this bad treatment. Islam protects the right of every individual to profess the religion of their choice. God says in the Qur'an, "There is no compulsion in religion. Verily, the right path has become distinct from the wrong path." (Quran 2:256).

Again, the Qur'an protects churches, mosques, and other places of worship. The Qur'anic verse relating to this fact reads, "And were it not that Allah checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned [i.e., praised]." (Qur'an 22:40).

Besides, God has warned Muslims not to insult the deities or idols which some people worship. Thus, Allah says in the Qur'an, "And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge." (Qur'an 6:108).

Also, Allah wants Muslims to respect the scriptures which preceded the Qur'an and were given to the previous Prophets who came before Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The Qur'an states, "O you who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He sent down upon His Messenger and the Scripture which He sent down before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day has certainly gone far astray." (Qur'an 4:136)

For lack of space and time, we could have made more references to the Qur'an, detailing the rights God has given to mankind and how we should tolerate each other.

Let us exercise our human rights responsibly to safeguard the rights of other people.