Krachiwura drags Moslem leaders to court... for disturbing public peace

The Krachiwura, Nana Mprah Besemuna III has applied for an order at the Krachi-west District Court restraining some sections of Moslems at the Kete-Krahi township from the use of microphones for worship, a situation he said has been of paramount concern to the people over the years.

The Paramount Chief of the Krachi traditional area explained that the application which was granted by the court did not prevent Moslems in the Kete-Krachi township from worshiping Allah, but the outlaw of the use of microphones during worship, which affected some selected groups of Moslems in the town.

Presenting his case before the court, the Krachiwura, Nana Mprah Besemuna said the action did not affect the Central Mosque worshippers, the Al-Suna, Ahmadiya and the Orthodox Moslems. He also noted that the mosque at Gyanekrom, which was located at the outskirts of Kete-Krachi was also not affected in view of its location.

He continued that the major three moslem sects at Kete-Krachi behaved in an orderly manner during worship, which created no problem to the people, therefore the decision by the Krachi Traditional Council to allow them to continue to use the microphones in their worship.

Nana Mprah Besemuna pointed out that the decision to seek court order to restrain some of the Moslems from the use of microphones emanated from the increasing number of Moslem families creating their own mosques, where they decided to use the microphone during worship, in mosques which had some six to eight worshippers.

The Krachiwura made it clear that the Traditional Council was not against the Moslems or the families who established the smaller mosques but the problem about the development was due to the excessive noise that they made, noting that in the Kete-Krachi township alone there were 13 mosques and all of them use the microphone during worship.

Nana Mprah Besemuna said the smaller families with their mosques were not prevented from worshiping God but could do so by using their voices, adding that those families with mosques using microphones during worship were gradually turning the Kete-Krachi community into a noise-making society which he said the chiefs would not encourage, saying -”after all the use of microphone during worship was not a prerequisite to the Islamic religion”.

The Presiding Magistrate at Kete-Krachi, His Worship Emmanuel Nana Antwi-Barimah said the ex-parte motion granted was to restrain 9 out of 13 mosques using microphones during worship, which he pointed out created excessive noise which His Worship said contravene the public order ACT on noise–making.

He explained that the court 's own findings revealed that the numerous mosques and the use of microphones was not a matter of religion but purely based on chieftaincy aspirations among the moslems at the Kete-Krachi Zongo, where they were fighting among themselves as to who should become the head of the Zongo.

His Worship, Nana Antwi- Barimah said it was unfortunate that the moslems were rather trying to create the impression that it was not a matter of chieftaincy but religion, in order to attract more sympathizers from the Islamic religion which he said was unfortunate and asked those with such intentions to change their attitude since the law would not allow them to infringe on the rights of other persons in the community. “It is even surprising that the owners of the land are not fighting over chieftaincy but the strangers decided to fight among themselves, thereby disturbing the peace, but let me remind them that any person that opposed the law will be dealt with accordingly.”