"Muslim chiefs, opinion leaders must not be partisan'

September 12, 2008 pg 17

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
A Research fellow at the Ghana Muslim Academy (GMA), Alhaji Adam Yunus, has advised Muslim chiefs and opinion leaders against openly declaring their support for political parties.
“Chiefs and opinion leaders should try and be non-partisan in their interactions with political parties and be extra careful not to be tagged or seen to be supporting a particular political party,” he stressed.
Alhaji Yunus was delivering a paper on “Towards Peaceful Election 2008 — The Role of the Muslim Ummah,” at the 9th annual Mujahid Ramadan lectures organised by the GMA in Accra.
The lectures highlighted the socio-economic and political challenges of the Muslim community, with the view to finding remedies for them.
Alhaji Yunus spoke against a decision by some chiefs to visit some political leaders to either thank them or declare their support for them.
“Chiefs should wait for politicians to rather come to them, and not they chasing the politicians,” he demanded of the chiefs.
Alhaji Yunus urged Ghanaians to “respect and appreciate” their political differences, and referred to Suratul Hujurat (Qur’an Chapter 49), which requires of Muslims to handle their own affairs and live together by respecting each other’s views.
He said the chapter made it clear that opinions would certainly vary and could never be the same, and indicated that verse 11 says that “insults, speaking evil of others and generally defaming others are things considered as sin. Hence, those attitudes should be avoided”.
Alhaji Yunus stressed that Islamic law actually considered defamation as something sinful and criminal, and said insulting and fighting one another because they belonged to different political parties were un-Islamic and non-political.
“Once we have accepted to practise multi-party democracy, we ought to have political differences, otherwise there is no democracy,” he said.
Alhaji Yunus advised the youth to control their youthful exuberance and not allow themselves to be used by politicians to visit mayhem on their political opponents.
He, therefore, stressed the need for Imams to preach to their congregations the need to participate positively in the country’s political process and always ensure a peaceful atmosphere.
Alhaji Yunus asked Muslims to dedicate this month of Ramadan to prayers for Allah to grant Ghana a peaceful, free and fair election and establish leadership that would bring peace and security to the nation.