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29.03.2017 Opinion

An Open Letter To The Vice Chancellor Of Accra Technical University (ATU) On The Marginalization Of Muslims And Muslim Students   

By Amadu Anuwar-Sadat
An Open Letter To The Vice Chancellor Of Accra Technical University ATU On The Marginalization Of Muslims And Muslim Students
29.03.2017 LISTEN

I, the under-signed wish to petition your high office to as a matter of urgency overturn a directive issued by the Estate Department of your institution to the effect that the study shed behind the Accountancy department that Muslim students and the general public use for their Friday congregational prayers due to the small side of the mosque on campus should cease.

I am Amadu Anuwar-Sadat of № 8B, 6th Circular Road, Cantonments, Accra; and a former GNUPS President of Wa Polytechnic.

As a former Officer of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS), the mother union of all polytechnic students in Ghana; and most importantly a citizen of Ghana, I feel such a directive is inappropriate and it will be in the collective interest of both your institution and the nation that you use your good office to find an amicable solution to this new development on your campus that I feel is gross discrimination against Muslims in Ghana especially Muslim students of the Accra Technical University.

Just last Friday, 24th March, 2017, I was at your institution to print some documents of mine at your commercial area and it was time for the Friday congregational prayer (Jummah) so I decided to offer the prayer with your students. I first saw notices posted on the shed that “THE READING SHED SHOULD BE USED SOLELY FOR STUDYING PURPOSES.” which purportedly was issued by the Estate Department. Then after the prayers, the Imam that led the prayer announced that it was going to be that last Friday congregational prayer to be held at that venue as they were instructed by management to stop using the facility for prayers on Fridays.

Interestingly, I found it curious and worrying that the estate department and management for that matter saw it necessary to stop Muslims from using the study shed for the about 30 minutes congregational prayers only on Fridays; but sees nothing wrong with other religious groups that use even lecture halls for their prayers for hours virtually on daily basis.

On that faithful Friday, the Imam couldn’t even complete his announcement as it was met with stiff opposition from the congregation. I see this recent development at the Accra Technical University not only as religious intolerance that could degenerate into something unpleasant; but also an issue of National Security concern because it took some of us a great deal of time and persuasion to calm the tempers of students that day.

Our country has since the start of formal education demonstrated a high sense of tolerance amongst ourselves and therefore, I find it very worrying that such a development is emerging at this time that we need more tolerance to build this country.

I don’t think we need to be reminded of the scope of freedom of worship in this country as set out in the Constitution as follows:

Article 21(1) All persons shall have the right to

(c) Freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practice”.

Article 26 (1)
Every person is entitled to enjoy, practice, profess, maintain and promote any culture, language, tradition or religion subject to the provisions of this Constitution.

Article 17
(2) A person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status.

(3) For the purposes of this article, "discriminate" means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, gender, occupation, religion or creed, whereby persons of one description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another description are not made subject or are granted privileges or advantages which are not granted to persons of another description.

And Article 12 (2) specifically mentions religion as one of the grounds which is not permitted as a reason for interfering with a person’s fundamental human rights.

The Accra Technical University as a public institution cannot on the one hand enjoy economic support from the taxes of citizens who includes Muslims and on the other refuse to accord them equal opportunity to enjoy the facilities they help pay for in the manner to which they are most inclined.

Education as we all know is key to development and to make our lives better. But if there is no peace in our educational institutions its major role of providing opportunity for developing this country would not be realized. It is therefore, incumbent on all of us as school authorities, students, government, religious bodies and individuals to work together to make our educational institutions a peaceful place to create the conducive environment for effective teaching and learning.

I trust that you will give this petition the urgent attention it deserves and act promptly as a stitch in time they say saves nine. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,
Amadu Anuwar-Sadat
(Email: [email protected])

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