Opinions of Thursday, 26 March 2020
Columnist: Charles Prempeh
2020-03-26
countrywide Cathedral
On March 24, 2020, at the apex of the outbreak of COVID-19, I aroused from sleep to a piece of writing written by Am. Alhaji Abdul-Raham Harruna Attah that launched a serious attack towards the country wide cathedral task in Ghana.
At a time when countries have literally come to a halt, we expect to hear nothing aside from some thing that will gladden our hearts in terms of a remedy for COVID-19.
And at a time when brains are at work within the seek an antidote to an epidemic that has certainly long past viral, we least anticipated to read such imprudent attack towards a national cathedral from a man who's expected to know enhanced than the general Ghanaian!
unfortunately, those we admire, who've age to their credit, and would had been a fountain of knowledge for the younger generation to gain knowledge of from are sounding the conflict drum. definitely, we would have expected a so-known as skilled statesman, Amb. Alhaji Abdul-Rahman H arruna Attah, to mobilise individuals to help the state to find an antidote a menacing virus. as an alternative, this petty- bourgeois, sitting within the comfort of his "multi-religion" room has no qualms identifying the event to lambast and lampoon Christians. however, certainly, we don't be anxious over his unpatriotic behaviour and expect such aspersions on the grounds that it is a part of the malignant efforts on the half Islam to wreck the reality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We recognize that on the grounds that the 1960s and 1970s, in particular following the Iranian revolution that ousted the Shah regime, Muslims have considered the feel in uniting below unproductive and dangerous Islamism, as antagonistic to Arabism, to accentuate the campaign towards Christianity and the rest reflecting the Christian religion. seeing that the 1970s, the Muslim world has not reneged on its efforts in practicing radical Muslims far and wide the realm, terrorising Christians and huma ns who stand within the means of the menacing threats of Islam. Following the patriarchalism of Islam, younger Muslim men are backed to head to the Arab world to examine Arabic and first- century Islam (now and again ruthlessly reliving the period of jahiliyya within the twenty-first-century world).
They don't examine anything valuable to the contemporary world, beyond furthering the imperialism of Islam, which began in the seventh century, following the death of the self- ordained and imposter, Mohammed. These Muslim formative years return to Ghana to have interaction in divisive non secular proselytization. It is no ask yourself that when you consider that the Nineteen Nineties, Ghana witnessed remarkable intra and inter-non secular tensions. These Muslims who had been brainwashed in the Arab world had nothing first rate to offer the nation apart from building mosques and carrying out conflicts with anybody who appeared reasonable of their practice of Islam.
In Zongo c ommunities, the Nineties witnessed the proliferation of mosques and religious conflicts. The beginning of 2000s additionally noticed most mosques present process refurbishment and decorations. I wager Mr Harruna Attah should have something meaningful to say to his americans's penchant to build mosques.
Mr Harruna Attah, please in case you believe the countrywide cathedral is a "rattling aspect" as you call it to your ill-conceived article, please rethink and speak to the imperialism of the Muslim world, being fronted by way of Turkey, to order. be sure to be wise ample to know that those constructing the national cathedral have accomplished greater in advancing Ghana's socio-economic development than your americans whose highest quality bet in the fight against colonialism changed into to sing, "Yaa yi wa wa, bature ya yi wa wa" to "to wit: the white man has become a fool." Even right here, the competition of these ex-servicemen became since the British had didn' t are living as much as the promise they made to the ex-servicemen. as a minimum, each predominant church in Ghana now has a university.
Islam was in Ghana (later to be called Gold Coast) about hundred years earlier than Christianity, what has Islam done for this nation? Even the institution that has the identify Islam attached to it (regarding Islamic tuition college, Ghana) turned into developed with the aid of the Shi'a, a gaggle that some hardliners in Sunni Islam disagree with. indeed, as you rant against the country wide cathedral, kindly inform us what Islam, after centuries in Ghana has done for us? beyond targeting the rest Christians do, please inform us how Islam has basically contributed to the socio-economic building of Ghana.
You claim the countrywide cathedral is a damn element! fair enough! As a resident of 1 of the Zongo communities for the previous three decades, I challenged some of your leaders to stem the tide against the damn Arab imperialism. Whe n the Turkish executive decided to build the big mosque around Kawokudi (or Ruga) this is nothing short of a drop in a desert (seeing that the extent of poverty in Zongo communities), I informed your americans that they may still insist on a college fairly a mosque. I literally went on my knees, as a young man, telling your individuals to do what Christians do highest quality – empowering people through expertise. but, as standard, as a result of they knew they might get some kickbacks, they committed to that imposing edifice in my neighborhood. truly, the corruption that suffocated the venture has made the project lingered for more than ten years. Mr former Ambassador, I problem you to call your americans to order that they should advance their heads, coveting skills in the course of the constructing of universities and demanding centres of researching. They may still now not most effective deepen their indebtedness to Arab imperialism by using at all times constructing mosques. Zongo communities are filled with mosques, and yet many people are congested in single rooms – it is that this form of congestion it truly is a hazard to the nation, within the face of coronavirus, now not the countrywide cathedral! You advised that the cathedral should be used as an inter-religion edifice. neatly, this has been the place of Muslims, for the reason that the announcement of the country wide cathedral turned into made.
truly, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shuaib, the spokesperson of the national chief imam, changed into probably the most earliest individuals to have made this suggestion. I even have a question for you: why didn't you inform the Turkish govt to assemble an analogous edifice so one can raise Christian-Muslim relations in Ghana? Why did you sit down down quietly within the comfort of your "inter-religion" room to allow the Turkish executive to re-ignite the spirit of neo-colonialism in a twenty-first- century Ghana? Why do not you inform the Arab world t o teach your americans in medication, engineering, and structure, as an alternative of indoctrinating them with an atavism for first-century Islam (a century that become nothing in need of a blood-tasty prophet, killing and spilling blood to satisfy a deity, often known as Allah)? Mr Harruna Attah, i'm difficult you to stem the tide towards Islamic imperialism through calling your people to resist the efforts of the Arabs at the use of them to extra the wish of a blood-thirsty deity. give your individuals training and inspire them to pursue peace. supply them valuable talents and they're going to provide capabilities that allows you to facilitate peaceable interfaith interactions.
At any expense, Christians do not appear ahead to attacking Muslims. We do not overtly condemn Muslims as Muslims do to us. in case you suppose i am wrong on this, do a pattern of the content material of open-air preaching of your leaders in Zongo communities and pattern the sorts of polemical books they promote.
You also claim that the national cathedral smacks of discrimination in opposition t individuals of alternative religions.
This ridiculousness in thinking is mirrored for your myopic knowledge concerning the cathedral.
Mr Harruna Attah, be advised that no region of worship for the Christian is closed to non-Christians. anybody at all, with decent intention, apart from a Muslim terrorist, is allowed to worship within the church. One wants no longer to always bleat the Shahadah, confessing a blood-thirsty and imposter prophet (pun meant, as you did together with your article), earlier than you may take part in church prayer. The church is a spot of refuge for all.
No need for unnecessary rituals. certainly, here's unlike the mosque, where one needs to pretend to be quickly "pure" during the efficiency of ablution before one can be given entry.
Anyway, I indicate they lengthen the ablution to the cleaning of the coronary heart. on the grou nds that the intention to sin (niyyah) doesn't come from the toes, arms, ears, mouth, or eyes. It comes from the coronary heart.
So, belabouring the bathing of those mundane materials of the body will do Muslims no decent. that is why after years of washing, most Muslims are ever able to take fingers in opposition t Christians.
in all probability you are correct, we need an inter-religion speak centre to aid Muslims relax and possibly see the Lord Jesus Christ as the simplest credible saviour of the elect of God. So, if individuals of all walks of lifestyles, aside from Muslim terrorists, have intentions of the usage of the country wide cathedral when completed, they're free to achieve this. It is not just like the one Turkish is building, which might be restrained to most effective Muslims. So, your fears should still be directed on the Turkish mosque in my community, no longer Christian countrywide cathedral.
in the identical vein, because you are so a great deal at pains to run down the national cathedral, you are rubbishing its architectural creativity and ingenuity. in case you care to understand, architecture is not well-nigh what we see; it's additionally about the vision, philosophy, and dreams it conveys and embodies.
through architecture, we learn about heritage, beliefs, and respect americans's sense of aesthetics.
Even when the west supposedly turned their backs on churches, they turned their attention to cathedrals as ancient memorialisation of their historical past. but it surely is the non- trivialisation of structure that explains the mad rush in Zongo communities to renovate mosques to reflect those of the imperialist Arab world.
once again, Mr Harruna Attah, a supposed statesman, you declare Ghana isn't in scarcity of locations of worship. If this argument is correct, why don't you cease your individuals from building mosques on every piece of space? Why do they pull down houses to accommodate individuals in Zongo communities to mount mosques?
definitely, Most Muslims in Ghana trust that constructing mosques will boost their qualification to heaven.
here's one reason why Zongos continue to witness proliferation of useless mosques. basically, in case you imply what you're advising, the highest quality assistance is a good instance. inform your people to stop constructing mosques, given that Zongoes already have satisfactory of them.
in the identical manner, we do know that it is the intra-religious conflicts which are encouraging the preponderance of mosques in Zongo communities. tell Saudi Arab to stop radicalising Muslims so that available area would be used for schools to Muslim youth.
actually, your tips is to your Muslim people. I must also add that the countrywide cathedral isn't handiest for cultic functions. I surmise that with your calibre, be sure you not have difficulties gaining access to counsel concerning the numerous functions of the cathedral.
Given your position on it, it is either you're deliberately fomenting hatred for the undertaking and enriching animosity towards Christians otherwise you are ignorant about what cathedral does. both ways, you're incorrect in pondering that the countrywide cathedral is barely going to be yet another place of worship.
Do you even know that it is going to house a museum for the Bible, the booklet that has the message of our salvation? do you know that it goes to be used for different public routine? anyways, i hope the Turkish mosque in my neighborhood is also going to have multiple features, past the senior excessive faculty this is attached to it.
Mr Harruna Attah, it is gloomy that you simply do not know what secularism is set. you have got joined the foolhardy who keep bleating about Ghana's supposed secular repute without understanding the nuances of secularity/secularism and secularisation.
You quoted Nkrumah to aid Ghana's supposed secularity. incide ntally, Nkrumah didn't declare Ghana a secular state in the way you're deploying the thought – absence of religion in the public sphere. Nkrumah's thought of consciencism, which changed into a fusion and synthetization of Ghana's triple heritage, Islam, Christianity, and indigenous religions, changed into meant to foster a nation that preferred religion as vital to our repertoire of doing issues.
by the way, do you know that Nkrumah regularly run to the church anytime he had difficulties? When he was
released from detention center within the Fifties, he ran to the non secular founding father of the Mosama Disco Christo Church, seeking religious purging and restitution. On the eve of independence, Nkrumah once more went to the MDCC to grasp what day and month to select for the nation's independence.
Mr Harruna Attah, whereas Nkrumah now and again had an ambivalent perspective in opposition t the church (calling himself a non-denominational Christian and a Marx ist socialist), he did not preach secularism – when it comes to the absence of faith in the public sphere.
His style changed into the accommodation of all the religions. this is what Christians have always executed. while we now have an awesome demographic potential, we now have by no means considered it prudent to suppress Muslims. i'm hoping you have got read about how Muslims suppressed the Christians in Lebanon.
i'm hoping you're also aware of how some Muslims in Egypt, inspired by the blood-thirsty sun-deity (pun meant), are persecuting the minority Coptic Christians.
a different unnecessary aspect you're making is that no longer every Christian helps the country wide cathedral.
certainly, if you had utilized some primary logic – taught as a part of crucial pondering, you possibly can have frequent that the inclusive article "all" in a sentence is at all times complicated, peculiarly if you're coping with human beings. So, we aren't stunned that not each Christian helps the cathedral.
whereas some may additionally have political motivations now not to support the assignment (reflecting the NDC-NPP polarity in Ghana), there are those agencies who don't identify with evangelical Christianity in Ghana.
as an instance, the companies you outlined – the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses – do not identify with mainstream Christianity and will certainly not assist any collective undertaking. I think you're aware that these groups had been banned from working in Ghana below the religious bodies [Registration] legislation in 1989. These organizations, largely regarded cults of Christianity, do not accept the cardinal teachings of the Christian faith. and naturally, it isn't any ask yourself that you, who belong to anti-Christian religion, can serve on the charity board of the Mormons.
I wish Islam will enable a Christian to do the equal with their organizations. in any case, it isn't most effective Christian ity that has groups who do not share the cardinal teachings of the religion.
remember to be aware of the case of Nation of Islam and Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, who do not share the teachings of different Muslims. The respectable information is that while Christians don't persecute men and women who deviate from the teachings of the religion, in Islam the same cannot be noted. you should definitely understand how the concept of orthodoxy changed into deployed to hound the Ahmadiyya out of Pakistan within the 1970s. incidentally, you comprehend that your prophet changed into "right" in saying that your religion – Islam, could have seventy-seven divisions. I pray we don't witness the seventy-seven division in Ghana, for that could be a catalyst for chaos. Already with just two leading factions in the equal Sunni way of life – Ahlu Sunna and Tijaniyya – you are unable to coexist in the identical house. i used to be questioning why you determined to rob your supposed "i nter-faith" home in our face. if your wife is a Christian, although you stay a Muslim, what has that got to do with us? anyways, I may still agree with your spouse, being a "Christian" has not been tagged a nonentity in her family. here's as a result of in contrast to Muslims, the place a Muslim lady who marries a Christian man is regarded an abomination and suffers social demise, in the case of Christians, we rather pray for such men and women. We believe that our God is the one who converts, no longer persecution – which has all the time been the device attainable to Islam. Even the crusades, which the Christians have been involved in became largely according to Muslim aggression to take over the land of Jerusalem. I agree with you understand how the word 'mirage' in English was an instantaneous borrowing of Mi'raj in Islam to exhibit how Muslims had been deluded to have notion that your prophet changed into taken to heaven through the Temple of Jerusalem. surprising ly, a temple that was destroyed about 5 centuries before the upward push of Islam was physically attainable to have served as a conduit to your prophet to go to heaven the place intercourse will prevail unabashedly.
incidentally, the "mi'raj" was religious, why did you construct a mosque in that house? Why do you fight over Jerusalem? anyhow, again to track, you consider in case your wife were a Muslim, your fogeys – in the event that they belonged to the novel sect from Saudi Arabia, would have allowed her to marry you (assuming you had been a Christian man)? in spite of everything, your wife chose to marry you in pursuant of her desires, not her religion.
here is precisely as a result of Jesus Christ did not endorse Christians to marry non-Christians. this is no longer coterminous to asserting that Christians do not suggest peaceful co-existence of religions. You might also are looking to study my academic article ("modern Zongo Communities in Accra Interfait h Marriages: The Case of Muslims and Christians in Accra"), posted through a excessive-rating journal, African stories Quarterly, on the considerations of interfaith marriages in Zongo communities in Accra.
eventually, you were wondering what the countrywide cathedral has bought to do with the coronavirus at hand.
smartly, you should definitely by means of now be aware of that effective international locations of the realm are calling on Christians to wish. nations that your unwell-advised figuring out of secularity would have had nothing to do with religion are now calling for prayer intervention.
i will be able to guarantee that the scarecrows built around the COVID-19 are because of people like you suppose know-how is the answer to every issue.
The worry that technology is failing us in the face of COVID-19 is the reason behind the fear invested within the virus. by the way, churches, just like the Church of Pentecost – which supports the country wide cathedral, are giving cars, funds and different substances to guide the state to combat the virus. what's Islam doing? I conclusion that we are going to continue to build the national cathedral to the glory of God. We are not discouraged by means of naysayers such as you.
We will not be deterred by using your partisan capabilities of issues. We could be encouraged to build it. no person is asking you to impose your "inter-religion" domestic on us; neither are we asking on your skills or cash. you probably have any suggestions on how to use resources judiciously, simply tell your individuals in Islam to avoid pilgrimaging varied times to blow their own horns, as they take imperialist title like Alhaji and Alhajia. They may still fairly channel their money into constructing faculties and universities.
and eventually, no matter if a stone from Israel is used as a part of the groundwork of the country wide cathedral or now not is nothing compared to the geocentricism of Islam, the place the black stone is worshipped and where prayer is void except it's directed at an idol edifice in Mecca. it is also no longer compared to incessant kissing of black stone for salvation.
within the end, the Bible says it is simply a fool who calls the things of God folly (Psalm 14:1).
Satyagraha
Charles Prempeh (prempehgideon@yahoo.com), African university school of Communications, Accra
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