Opinions

News

Sports

Business

Entertainment

GhanaWeb TV

Africa

Country

Is Islamic Fundamentalism Creeping into Ghana?

This article is closed for comments.

Read Comments Comments (94)

  • OKOMFO ANOKYE 9 years ago

    THEY ARE GETTING ON OUR NERVES. SOONER OR LATER WE SALL WIPE THEM. WE ARE JUST WAITNG FOR THE RIGHT TIME....

  • xx 9 years ago

    Speaking as if he does not know who the muslims are. Typical NPP coward. The whole nigerian army (best in africa after egypt, SA, Algeria)cannot defeat boko Hara. What of if boko haram offers to help. I still rememebr your GE ...
    read full comment

  • Pelicles 9 years ago

    Debate and stop being emotional. You like what Boko Haram is doing in Nigeria else, you will not use that as an example. Remember that Ghana is not Nigeria and also, you should understand that Nigeria has more Muslims than G ...
    read full comment

  • anonymous 9 years ago

    Boko Haram has the backing of the Muslim population worldwide.It is what 'shitslam' and 'moslums' is all about.Wherever they are,there is destruction and uncivilised way of life(violence,slavery,killings,beheadings etc).The w ...
    read full comment

  • Abena 9 years ago

    All fanatics of religion (Christian, Muslim, Buddhists etc) is that they dont know how to separate issues. One group of muslims complain about forced worjsip in schools, then the whole community is evil. A pastor in Tema who ...
    read full comment

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    It is said that Muslims are minority in Ghana but when you go to prisons across Ghana they are in the majority. If we allow Muslims to have their way they will turn this peaceful nation of ours into an open prison.

  • Ibn 9 years ago

    Boko Haram emerged as a result of decades of unsuccessful effort to achieve the rights and liberties of Muslim Students in Nigerian schools. In most of the schools, Church services are compulsory and the right environment is ...
    read full comment

  • SARPONG 9 years ago

    I think the Politicians are creating problems that never existed. This so called Christian/Moslem religious divide is being " harped" to distract Ghanaians from the "duuuuuuuuuuumsor duuuuuuuuuuuusor" menace.

    Kofi, I think ...
    read full comment

  • Ghanaman 9 years ago

    Sarpong, Morning devotion are more for the announcements, warm-up(presence and preparation towards classroom moments), the singing of national anthem, the reciting of national pledge and marching(in elementary schools) than a ...
    read full comment

  • Gye Nyame 9 years ago

    Kofi/Sarpong, you are losing sight of why this has become a hot topic. It is all political otherwise the president would not have quickly jumped in. Also I would not be surprised that these students are being empowered by som ...
    read full comment

  • Ghanaman 9 years ago

    Nigeria army is one of the best in Africa? Charlie, are you kidding? Lol, ridicule does not kill!
    They were running from the Boko Haram fighters saying they didn't want to die! Actually, Nigeria is trying hang some of them f ...
    read full comment

  • med 9 years ago

    wipe who out. you see these are some of the things you say and spark violence yet you blame others. nobody is talking about killing here. they simply asking for their right. so where is the wiping out coming. well I am proud ...
    read full comment

  • nanawusu 9 years ago

    what right are you talking about? if you want better schools build your own and stop claiming right on someone's property. Go back to class one and Learn about your rights and responsibilities.nonsense

  • Ibn 9 years ago

    Christians want us to believe that Jesus, died the death of a false prophet, that is unacceptable. I love God and his prophets too much to believe in such non-sense.

    65 reasons to believe that Jesus did not die on the cro ...
    read full comment

  • Rash 9 years ago

    Ibn,I enjoyed reading you comment.I sometimes wonder why professors,drs etc read the bible and don't see all the contradictions.But I blame it on laziness and Paul and his pagan kings.They succeeded in adulterating the bible. ...
    read full comment

  • Ibn 9 years ago

    All Muslims have to believe in Jesus as one of
    The prophet sent by God in order to be a Muslim.
    We respect and love him and because of it we want to
    present our point of view of the Prophet Jesus. Not
    to insult our Christ ...
    read full comment

  • Yakubu Tali jr 9 years ago

    JUST BRING IT ONN NOW OKONFO... WE SHALL WIPE YOU ALL OUT OF THE MAP OF GHANA. LOOK AT YOU BABY Chickens. ..HAHAH U WANT TO PLAY WITH FIRE??? HAHAH WELCOME TO FIRE FESTIVAL....NATURALLY BORN IGNORANT PEOPLE

  • Pelicles 9 years ago

    Mahama is trying to score a political point with that religious brouhaha. There is nothing like "discrimination" against any Muslims anywhere in Ghana. Those who are doing all they could to set Ghana ablaze should do so bec ...
    read full comment

  • Close Observer 9 years ago

    WE HAVE LIVED TOGETHER PEACEFULLY UNTIL THE USELESS NDC PARTY WAS FORMED. A PARTY OF POOR LOOKING FOR RICHES OVERNIGHT.

    ''We have been vice presidents for far too long, it is time you make ONE OF YOUR OWN President.'' - Jo ...
    read full comment

  • OZA 9 years ago

    Very intelligent discussion. Well written and a warning to all Ghanaians. The signs are there, they start slowly and seemingly harmless until they creep into the minds of silly polititians. That's when they gain legitimacy to ...
    read full comment

  • Pelicles 9 years ago

    Those with extreme Islamic philosophy start with something like this then if the people give in, they keep demanding more to the point of a separate homeland.

    Look at Islamic group like Aby Sayaf in the Philippine. They ...
    read full comment

  • Abena 9 years ago

    There is difference between praying the Christian or Muslim prayer at morning assembly and attending a church service on Sunday. The latter should not be accepted by any person and that is what some schools are doing.

  • SARPONG 9 years ago

    Abena, I agree with you. Moslems should not be compelled to attend morning devotion where Christian worship is the norm or Christians should not be compelled to attend Moslem devotions.

    Left to me, morning devotions and Su ...
    read full comment

  • Patrick 9 years ago

    A very well informed piece of writing. See what the West, particularly the UK are finding themselves face in Syria? David Cameron at some point wanted to go and topple Assad of Syria but he was voted down by parliament. Now, ...
    read full comment

  • xx 9 years ago

    It is their right if they want to wear hijab, burka, or whatever. I blame the muslim in the first place for allowing such nonsense to be happening. They should rise up NOW.

  • Pelicles 9 years ago

    What stops you from telling them to set Ghana ablaze? If I send my child to an Islamic school, I don't expect them to change the rules to my son's favor. Can you name an instance where a Muslim had been discriminated against ...
    read full comment

  • xx 9 years ago

    A very intelligent muslim youth was pushed down to his death from a 3-storey block for not attending some stupid and bainwashed mrning devotions.

  • Pelicles 9 years ago

    And what was the outcome?

  • Abena 9 years ago

    There was no investigation, the school did not apologise to his parents. The issue is that the boy had to attend Sunday Worship, not just come and say the prayer at morning assembly. I suppose Jesus was happy that he died for ...
    read full comment

  • Menua Kwadwo 9 years ago

    where did that happen?

  • KKO 9 years ago

    Abena,
    Do you believe this cheap lie? The boy in question was in St Augustine at Cape Coast. He and his friends were hiding in an uncompleted building and studying, which was illegal, while others were attending morning ser ...
    read full comment

  • SARPONG 9 years ago

    xx, I believe no Moslem should be forced to attend Christian morning devotion but can you tell us where in Ghana a Moslem student was pushed down from a three storey building to his death because he was a Moslem. Please don't ...
    read full comment

  • Abdul 9 years ago

    U are a fool. which Islamic school forces christians to go to the mosque.

  • GLORY BE TO GOD!!! 9 years ago

    XX'S ANSWER IS THAT THE GHANAIAN MUSLIMS SHOULD RISE UP? REALLY? THAT IS WHY THE MAJORITY IS SHOUTING AND ARGUING WHY? BECAUSE WHENEVER A MUSLIM DOES NOT GET HIS WAY, HE RESORTS TO VIOLENCE?

    WHY BURN DOWN THE MISSION HOUS ...
    read full comment

  • Kobby 9 years ago

    Rights are within a scope. In this case the constitution of Ghana. The greater worry is if the supposed right is not placed within scope the Muslim will ask to be ruled by sharia law which is alien to the laws of Ghana but a ...
    read full comment

  • GLORY BE TO GOD!!! 9 years ago

    MR. KOFI ATA, ALL I CAN SAY IS I WISH YOU ARE ONE OF THE JUDGES WHO WILL SIT ON THE COURT AND HEAR THIS CASE CURRENTLY BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT, PERHAPS THE OUTCOME WILL FAVOR THESE MISSION SCHOOLS WITH AGE TESTED RULES AND R ...
    read full comment

  • anonymous 9 years ago

    That is stupid ISLAM creeping into our society.Kofi Ata has described their modus operandi.Connect the dots.... Ghanaians.Visit jihadwatch.org and similar sites(links).You will get to know more about their evil scheme.ISLAM i ...
    read full comment

  • Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. 9 years ago

    At St. Peter's, where I spent more time than you did, Kofi, we Protestants had a resident British Presbyterian minister cum teacher called Rev. Stuart. When he left, we had visiting pastors, including soon-to-be-Moderator, Rt ...
    read full comment

  • GOLD COAST 9 years ago

    Kofi,all the anecdotes and past traditions at mission schools you've touched on,will not amount to anything until the Supreme Court rules on the rights of Muslim students at these schools. Yours truly suspects a tinge of anti ...
    read full comment

  • SARPONG 9 years ago

    As a Christian, I don't see the big deal here, a Presbyterian attending a Catholic mass or Methodist church because we all believe in God through Jesus. A Christian is a Christian regardless of his denomination. I am a Cathol ...
    read full comment

  • anonymous 9 years ago

    Muslims are commanded by Allah to keep their enemies terrorized. Terrorism is a strategy of war and it’s proven from Hadiths of the Prophet and Islamic history.
    And you may ask,who are these enemies?
    It is jews,christians ...
    read full comment

  • Rash 9 years ago

    If Muslims are commanded to be terrorists so is Jesus commanding Christians to be terrorists.It is vivid in Luke 19:27 that those who refuse to accept he Jesus as king be brought before him and killed.I know someone will say ...
    read full comment

  • LARRY 9 years ago

    you were born blind, you grow up blind so you shall die blind. take your time and do reseach about islam before you say something about the religion. And make sure after your reseach you will tell yourself the truth. you ppl ...
    read full comment

  • Menua Kwadwo 9 years ago

    what about you being brainwashed by Arabs!!!!!

  • anonymous 9 years ago

    'Go back to old testament and u will find islam there' and now we see moslems playing 'taqiyya' as usual.

  • OB 9 years ago

    "Whilst Muslim men have the freedom of choice either to wear a beard or shave it, most Muslim women do not have such options". You mean the women do not have the options either to wear or shave a beard? I'm sorry you being to ...
    read full comment

  • Razak Seini 9 years ago

    Let it be known now and then that western values were there and Christian values were also there. Constantine made xtianity a legal religion in Europe during his reign .so western values can not be harvested to the advantage ...
    read full comment

  • LONTO-BOY 9 years ago

    MASSA KOFI, the new era of Islamic fundamentalism is growing in Ghana, and our divisive politics is encouraging it. The problem is far wider and deeper than the simmering debate over the issue of Christian devotions and the e ...
    read full comment

  • Nyansasem 9 years ago

    We shouldn't be ignorant of the modus operandi of NDC- divide, conquer and rule. They will do whatever it takes to cling onto power. If we failed to understand them, Ghana stands to lose in the near future. Very sickening!

    ...
    read full comment

  • Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 9 years ago

    Nyasasem, I was not being mischievous on what Dr OSafo Marfo was alleged to have said. At best, I was disappointed that such a senior politician said what was alleged. I have sent article to Ghanaweb on that subject and will ...
    read full comment

  • Nima Boy 9 years ago

    I can see how desperate Kofi and his ilk's are to curb the dwindling number of Christian converts or to meet their masters quota. Telling all kinds of lies to tarnish the image of this great religion.You can hide behind your ...
    read full comment

  • Okloo Elikem 9 years ago

    Xx please what has this got to do with NPP. Allah punish you

  • anonymous 9 years ago

    What do Muslims pray 5 times a day? Nothing but bigotry and hatred of the Christians and Jews!

    In their daily prayers, Muslims have to repeat the following from the Quran multiple times (Surah 1, Fatihah): “Guide us to t ...
    read full comment

  • Rash 9 years ago

    What about the noise the churches make all over.Do u call that worshiping God.Funny religion.Do u enter your rooms with shoes etc? But Gods room is entered with anything.It's funny when Christians say it is what's in heart th ...
    read full comment

  • GIDEON ATONGO 9 years ago

    By far, this is the best opinion on the subject. Let's see how far religious freedom can be stretched by Muslims with their irrational demands.

  • Dr. W. Brobbey 9 years ago

    Muslim pupils made up a very significant percentage of st peter's population,despite the fact that the universal catholic church was at its most intolerant phase (when the catholic church did not even acknowledge Anglican,let ...
    read full comment

  • SARPONG 9 years ago

    Thank you Doctor, exactly my point. Moslems should not be forced to attend Christian devotions and Ghanaians will continue to live in peace. Fundamentalism is gradually creeping into Ghanaian Christians it needs to be stopped ...
    read full comment

  • DDKT 9 years ago

    U maybe right but u got to admit that musims are just voient by nature.

  • Kwadwo 9 years ago

    Mahama and his posse deliberately planted this faux problem as wedge issue for votes. I hope it explodes in his face.

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    . As for many Christians who are supporting Muslms rights in Christian schools, it is because they are so engrossed with ignorance that they don’t know the past. Dr Jane Smith of the Harvard University has clearly shown i ...
    read full comment

  • Ghanaman 9 years ago

    "i am reading that the catholic Bishops conference of Ghana has literally told Muslims in their schools to take part in catholic rituals ot OUT if they feel affronted..."

    The Bishops Conference said NO such thing. The exac ...
    read full comment

  • Nima Boy 9 years ago

    It amazes me how this bishops who suppose to know how to diffuse tensions like this will react in such a reckless manner.

  • kwame 9 years ago

    Its bcos of "little brain president" called john mahama and his intimidation ministers. They now look very foolish im e eyes of the whole world.

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    Mahama(a Gonja) is following the prescriptions of OIC.You remember a Muslim MP from Gonjaland declared that adulterous women should be stoned to death. Again Boko Haram in Akyem terrorized Muslim women for buying food from Ch ...
    read full comment

  • Issah S Sulemana 9 years ago

    what an article! Thank you for this piece. Even the so called article 21 of the Ghn constitution cannot be applied to trample on the rights mission schools. If moslems claim their God(Allah) and the christian God(Jehovah) are ...
    read full comment

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    Islam cannot survive without political/government intervention. That is how feeble and cheap that religion is.
    Muslims want Ghana government to sponsor Hajj operations. Muslims always want government to build their mosques f ...
    read full comment

  • jihadist john 9 years ago

    You are bias and also stupid.you are either a tilapia or a monkey from the south of Ghana who got the chance to live in the west so you dont care when Ghana is on fire.

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    The Quran quotes Allah as saying that Jihad is, in fact not just a religious duty but a profitable commerce, a business. (Sura 61:10-12). In the Hadith, Mishkat ‘ul Masabih, Jihad is said to be: “............the best meth ...
    read full comment

  • WUNTIRA 9 years ago

    The reason why muslims and christians have co-existed in Ghana peacefully is the fact that Muslims have been very tolerant of some of the naked discrimination against them. The constitution of Ghana guarantees freedom of wors ...
    read full comment

  • Ghanaman 9 years ago

    Why are you saying such nonsense as "The reason why muslims and christians have co-existed in Ghana peacefully is the fact that Muslims have been very tolerant of some of the naked discrimination against them..."

    In predom ...
    read full comment

  • Vuvuzela 9 years ago

    You're right Ghanaman. I remember those debates in Senegal. They didn't concern only dress codes, there was this same morning devotions issue and Muslims feeling coerced to attend.

    In fact, Senegalese Schools behave the s ...
    read full comment

  • Luther King 9 years ago

    I have always admired your write ups but it looks like u are beginning to write like Rockson Adofo and Okoampa. Am sure if u were a Muslim your argument would have been different. How would u feel as a Christian parent if you ...
    read full comment

  • Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 9 years ago

    Luther King, I never said it's ok for Jews to grow beard but wrong for Muslims to do so. Instead, I said the right for Muslim female students to wear veil at High School is the beginning of more demands and male students coul ...
    read full comment

  • Nima Boy 9 years ago

    Mr.Know-it-all, what are demands that will follow the veil? hahaha...Kofi wuye mobo

    "Children go to school to study but not to practice their faith" and in the same vein , not to be coerced to practice other faith. This is ...
    read full comment

  • Ghana 9 years ago

    Kofi when you started saying that Ghana is a Christian country was the area you completely missed the point!!!

    The schools may be built by the churches but, the gov took over. This means the schools are now gov schools so, ...
    read full comment

  • Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 9 years ago

    I explained what a Christian country meant and do you disagree with me? I also gave example of how a state funded Christian School in the UK insisted on a dress code which the Court agreed because allowing students to pick an ...
    read full comment

  • Gandau 9 years ago

    If he was a muslim I believe he would have sent his children to islamic or public schools where he would not have to border himself with the influence of christian values on his children.

  • Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. 9 years ago

    Brother Sarpong, I have also prayed at the Mosque several times right here in the United States. Other than removing your shoes, ritual washing and sitting cross-legged on your butts in the Mosque and facing the geographical ...
    read full comment

  • ABDUL NASIRU 9 years ago

    muslims must follow their right because in Ghana here the christians want to do everything they want but when Muslims start doing this, they are recognise as bad people. Even the senior high schools which are not missionary s ...
    read full comment

  • Fred 9 years ago

    Very enlightening Kofi. I have enjoyed reading this great piece. Keep it up

  • Adama Amadu 9 years ago

    The issue is simply. Allow us to manifest our religion in a Christian dominated environment. She rules that sought to coerse others to practice other faiths should be expunged. why should a Muslim lady no ...
    read full comment

  • Sly 9 years ago

    When a Nun covers herself from hair to toe she is seen as devotee to God, but when a Muslim lady dresses in the hijab or niqab then she is seen as oppressed and coerced by Muslim men and religion.

  • Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 9 years ago

    Sly, whilst I accept that all faiths oppress women, you cannot equate Nuns covering up to Muslim women being compelled by men to cover up. This is because the Nuns have decided on their free accord to give up certain rights s ...
    read full comment

  • Nima Boy 9 years ago

    Kofi, again you've shown how Ignorant you are of the religion you so passionately trying to defend. I know you don't read the bible so you've never come across this chapter 1 Corinthians 11:10. You Moron

  • Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 9 years ago

    I am not in any way defending the Christian faith or the Muslims being forced to take part in Christian worship but arguing that the system in Ghana when I was at school should be maintained because it worked.

    I am also wa ...
    read full comment

  • Ghana 9 years ago

    Kofi it will be better you stay at the realm of your knowledge. You keep amazing me of your ignorance of the Muslim faith and shamelessly exculpating Nuns who dresses up!

    Kofi when did you become the policeman of the Musl ...
    read full comment

  • Adama Amadu 9 years ago

    The issue is simply. Allow us to manifest our religion in a Christian dominated environment. School rules that sought to coerse others to practice other faiths should be expunged. why should a Muslim lady ...
    read full comment

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    Is it fair to exempt people who have toiled their whole lives pursuing the cause of a Islam to be exempted from enjoyment in the hereafter because of the colour of their skins? I think some of them have sacrificed a lot by a ...
    read full comment

  • Robert 9 years ago

    St.basilides technical institute-kaleo Upper West Region is one of the school that is forcing other religion members to enter church.

  • USMAN. 9 years ago

    Muslims should use Mecca money to build good schools for their children.Those against missionary schools should rather advice the government to stop the Makaranta form of education since it is a breeding ground for raising te ...
    read full comment

  • Yakubu Tali jr 9 years ago

    also u can never wear your kente cloth or bedsheets in the winter...idiot

  • kwame Ali 9 years ago

    Your right ends where another person's right begins. These are mission schs set out for a purpose. If u will not attend devotions pls go OUT to islamic schs

  • Abdul 9 years ago

    The person who wrote this article is a fool

  • Ghana 9 years ago

    Kofi it will be better you stay at the realm of your knowledge. You keep amazing me with your ignorance of the Muslim faith and shamelessly exculpating Nuns who dresses up!

    Kofi when did you become the policeman of the Mu ...
    read full comment