Gov’t sued over Christian – Muslim brouhaha

A writ has been filed at the Supreme Court to restrain the government and all its agencies and private institutions from coercing students of other faiths to attend or participate in partisan and sectional religious activities.

A citizen Gershon Nii Lamptey wants the highest court of the land to determine whether Muslim students should be forced to attend Christian services in Mission schools.

The Catholic Bishops Conference Tuesday issued a statement asking heads of all its mission schools to go ahead and enforce rules and regulations that require that all students attend mass, irrespective of their faith, so far as they have enrolled in those schools.

Lamptey in his writ said it is “unreasonable, illegitimate and/or unlawful for students attending missions schools falling under the aegis of the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education to be compelled under the guise of promoting school discipline to participate in religious activities endorsed and promoted by these mission schools when such students do not share the faiths proclaimed or promoted by these mission schools.”

He is praying the court to declare as “unconstitutional, the practice where government, through its ministries, agencies, departments, among others, sanction and endorse partisan religious activities or offering preferential treatment to some religions during state, events.

“Such treatment is not accorded all other religions in Ghana, particularly Islam and African Traditional Religion, on an equal footing is discriminatory and unjustifiable under the letter and spirit of articles 17,21(1)(b)(c),35(1)(5)(6)(a),37(1) and/or 56 of the Constitution.”

He believes it is unconstitutional for the government and all its agencies and private institutions to force students of other faiths to attend or participate in partisan and sectional religious activities, such as Sunday Worship or Morning Devotion, against their will.

Meanwhile, various Muslim groups in Ghana have jointly issued a statement expressing qualms about the “uncompromising” pronouncements made by some Christian groups concerning the raging debate over religious rights in schools and workplaces, particularly as regards Muslims in mission schools.

The statement, signed on behalf of the Chief Imam by Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu and Sheikh Dr. Amin Bonsu said the obdurate stance taken by the Christian Council, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), regarding the Muslim community’s demand for freedom of worship in educational institutions and workplaces in Ghana, could undermine the peace and harmonious coexistence between the two faiths in the country.