Africa-Press – Ghana. President John Dramani Mahama has called for religious tolerance among Ghanaians, especially in mission schools.
He made the call on Thursday, September 11, during a meeting with Regional Chief Imams at the Presidency in Accra.
The Delegation of the Conference of Regional Chief Imams was at the Presidency to congratulate President Mahama on his massive victory in the December 7, 2024, general elections.
“Ghana is a nation of diverse religions, and one of the things our Constitution guarantees is the freedom of religion, freedom to worship, and freedom to express one’s religious identity,” the President stated.
This, the President said was all captured in Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, and so there should be no grounds for religious discrimination, either on the side of Christians or on the side of Muslims.
P”There are times where you find a secondary school which is a Muslim secondary school, Ahmadiyya, Ghana Muslim Mission, or some other mission, in a community. And so, if children want secondary education or even basic education, that is the only school in their community.
“So they might be Christian, they might be Muslims. And so it doesn’t help that if Christian children are in a Muslim school, they should be forced to adopt Islam, the same way is if a Christian school is in a Muslim, dominated community, it should not compel the students to not express their religion.”
President Mahama said the Minister of Interior had been charged to lead the process, and that a memorandum of understanding (MoUs) on religious tolerance in especially mission schools have been signed by partners.
President Mahama said the Government has speeded up the recruitment of Islamic teachers, and that so far, an MoU had been signed with the Islamic Education Unit for the recruitment of 3,000 Arabic teachers.
This, he said would enhance the number of Arabic teachers available to man the Islamic educational units existing in the country.
He reiterated that there was a commitment to increase the number.
He said the Scholarship Secretariat had also been tasked to recruit students from especially depressed urban communities, which were mostly Zongos and Muslim communities.
He said in the field of medicine, engineering, law, and ICT, those were the priority subjects.
“We’ve asked the Scholarship Secretariat to recruit children from deprived Muslim and deprived urban communities- that’s mainly the Zongos, so that they can advance their education and be able to come back and improve their conditions in the areas from which they come,” he said.
He said the GETFund had inspected ongoing projects at Al-Farouk College of Education, started under his previous administration, but were unfortunately abandoned after he left office.
The eight different projects included lecture halls, hostels, administration block, and so many other projects.
He said the GETFund Administrator had done an estimate for the Projects, and contractors would soon go back on site and complete those projects.
President Mahama said in addition, the Minister of Health was engaging the major hospitals to consider a speedy release of Muslim bodies in the events of death.
He said the feedback had been good, except for cases of murder, where a crime was involved and there was a need for an investigation.
The President said for most other causes of death, it should be easy to speed up the release of the bodies to the family so that they could ensure a speedy burial in accordance with Islamic rights.
He said the Government was building a transit terminal at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, so that it could move the Hajj from the temporary structure in which it was.
“The terminal belongs to the Ghana Airport Company Limited, and it’s a transit terminal. It will be used during the Hajj to facilitate the travel of our pilgrims. But after the Hajj is over, that transit terminal will be available to passengers who are transiting through Ghana to other destinations.”
Alhaji Sullah Abdullah Quandah, the Secretary to the Conference of Regional Imams, thanked President Mahama for the additional holiday for Eid al-Fitr celebration describing it as a significant achievement.
The Delegation offered prayers for the materialisation of the President’s vision to improve the human resource base of the Muslim community in Ghana.
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