Demand by Christian Council for spokesperson of Chief Imam to withdraw, apologise over WeyGeyHey fasting saga wrong – FMC

The Federation of Muslim Councils (FMC) has keenly followed the brouhaha over fasting by Muslim students in Wesley Girls High School (WEYGEYHEY) and has taken cognizance of a GhanaWeb report on Monday, 10th May, 20121 of attacks by the leadership of the Christian Council of Ghana on the spokesperson of the National Chief Imam over remarks on religious tolerance in Ghana.

“The leadership of the Christian Council of Ghana” is reported to have “expressed disappointment in a comment made by the Spokesperson of the National Chief Imam Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu to the effect that the religious tolerance in Ghana is a façade.”

It would be recalled that, the spokesperson on TV3’s ‘Key Point’ programme on Saturday, 8th May, 2021 was forced to describe as façade the much-touted religious tolerance in Ghana when, in a dramatic move, the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), one after the other, threw support for the Methodist Church-Ghana in preventing Muslim students at Wesley Girls Senior High School from fast during Ramadan.

The “General Secretary of the Christian Council, Rev. Dr. Cyril Fayose” is further reported to have disagreed with the National Chief Imam’s Spokesperson on TV3’s Midday news on Monday May 10, 2012 and gone ahead to demand, on behalf of the leadership of the Christian Council of Ghana, a withdrawal and apology for what they deem “unfortunate comments” by the National Chief Imam’s Spokesperson.

The Federation of Muslim Councils of Ghana finds the demands of the Christian Council of Ghana as unfortunate, distasteful, and a recipe for destroying the cordial and harmonious relationship between Muslims and Christians in the country.

Indeed the FMC has expressed similar sentiments in a number of radio interactions and interviews since the start of the current bigotry. We didn’t expect the Christian Council to be this harsh on the Spokesperson of the National Chief Imam.

The support of the Christian Council of Ghana for the Methodist Church did not come as a surprise, since the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church doubles as the chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana.

Rather unfortunate and repugnant, therefore, is the stance of the Methodist Church and its allies in invoking what the Church described in its Press Release as an over 186-year-old policy of the school to deny Muslim students their fundamental human rights under constitution of the country.

The ongoing brouhaha must put in its proper perspective. The brouhaha goes beyond fasting in Ramadaan. Beneath the fasting ban is a systemic and persistent religious persecution of Muslim students in Wesley Girls High School.

It must be pointed out that the headmistress of Wesley Girls High School has restrained the Muslim students not only from fasting; she has also barred the Muslim students from observing the Muslim prayer (Salaat) and reading the Qur’an, even in private.

The matter, therefore, reflects a deep-seated intolerance, if not hated, for anything Islam and a calculated agenda to stifle Muslims and Islam at the least opportunity wherever they rear their heads.

Perennial problem

Issues of religious intolerance in educational institutions are perennial and must be addressed once-and– for-all. Religious intolerance against Muslims comes in different forms: One form is to compel Muslim students to worship with majority religious groups in schools. Another is to deny Muslim students the freedom to practice their faith in private on campuses.

And wearing of hijabs, a traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover their hair and neck, to work and in schools has also been a flash point. In all of these instances, it is intolerance by certain, not all, Christian-based institutions and some over-zealous Christian heads of even public institutions that made them media headlines.

For instance, in 2008, precisely on Sunday, March 16, Master Mustapha Abdul Gafaru, a student of Adisadel College met his untimely death when he was allegedly pushed to death from a storey-building by the Senior House Master of the school who was chasing the deceased for refusing to attend the school’s church service. The least talk about the attempted cover-up by the Committee of Enquiry set up to look into the incident the better.

In 2012, makeshift places of worship for by Muslim students on campuses of certain public secondary schools were destroyed by the school authorities.

In 2015, hijab took the centre stage. Reports that women and girls were being prevented from wearing their hijabs in schools and offices sparked protests in the Muslim community in the Western region to drum home human right abuses of Muslims in the country. The then government intervened swiftly to prevent an escalation.

The matter was so volatile that, in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) the then President John Dramani Mahama reminded Ghanaians of the provisions of article 21 of our constitution which guarantees freedom of religion and freedom to express one’s religious beliefs: “It is wrong under our constitution for Muslim students to be compelled to attend church services, or for Christian students to be compelled to attend Muslim congregational prayers.

It is also wrong to prevent Muslim students from wearing their veils, known as hijab, or for Christian nun from wearing their habits to work or to school”, President John Mahama stressed while calling for strict compliance by heads of institutions.

Peace-loving Muslims and other stakeholders thought the President’s intervention would be a guide post to steer the nation away from religious intolerance, for once. Regrettably, the President’s directives were rather misconstrued by a section of the Christian community.

This generated acrimonious exchanges between government and leadership of the Christian community - the same way the Methodist Church, backed by the Christian Council of Ghana and Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, is fuming at the directives of the Ghana Education Service to respect the 1992 Constitution and the rights of Muslim students in Wesley Girls High School.

Ironically, both the Christian Council of Ghana and Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference were key participants, together with the Federation of Muslim Councils, in drafting and getting the 1992 Constitution promulgated!

Why the two ecumenical bodies would turn round to disrespect their own works and threaten the centuries old peaceful coexistence among religions in Ghana is anybody’s guess.

This is what can lead any close watcher of the religious space to surmise that the Wesley Girls High School saga makes the much-touted religious tolerance between Muslims and Christians a lip-service, a sham and a façade!!

The Federation of Muslim Councils loves peace and is a vanguard of religious tolerance among religions in Ghana. The FMC, therefore, wishes to advice the Christian Council of Ghana and Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference to advice their agents, assigns, constituents and followers to support peace.