Inusah Loses Mosque Job

Alhaji Inusah Isaka's troubles are far from over. Ever since they started when he defected from the NPP to the NDC, he has been wallowing from one quagmire to the other.

He probably holds the only title in Ghana's contemporary politics as a defector and re-defector at the same time! The Accra Mail has been reliably informed by his family sources that attempts were made by some of his relations to stop him from organising the press conference at which he announced his re-defection from the NDC to the NPP. The move was to protect himself and his family from further embarrassment.

The embarrassment his well-meaning relations feared descended with full force in the form of ostracism last week at the Abelenkpe Central Mosque where for a long time he had been held in high esteem and was a member of the executive committee of the mosque.

His antics of defecting, re-defecting, with their attendant lies, deceit, and unfaithfulness have sent shock waves to a cross-section of Islamic clerics who fear Inusah's lack of integrity could unjustifiably have a negative impact on the image of Islam. For them it is not a matter of decamping from one party to another which is the issue but rather the inherent traits of opportunism and mendacity which are not in conformity with the dictates of Islam which he as a Muslim opinion leader now represents.

After deliberating on the issue of Inusah, the youth in the mosque have resolved that to protect the image of their place of worship, his role as an interpreter for the Friday sermons by the Imam should be stopped. Accordingly, he has been written and given the sack. His face and voice were therefore absent during last Friday's Juma'a congregational service, his place having been taken by a new face and voice. Although excommunication has no place in Islam, certain iniquities would not allow for the perpetrator to hold certain positions in the mosque and that it seems, is how far Alhaji Inusah has brought himself.

As to whether the mosque had not veered into the realm of politics with its action against Alhaji Inusah, Sheik Mohammed Awal Shueib, a member of the Islamic Judicial Committee at the Office of the National Chief Imam told the Accra Mail that " Islam cannot be detached from politics. After all the Prophet of Islam prepared the Constitution of the religion in Medina and this encompasses all aspects of human existence." He said Caliphs were both religious and political leaders who performed their roles in accordance with a strict code of ethics.

To be an Imam, for example, one must be of sound mind, potent and married. "Under no circumstances should an Islamic office holder and for that matter Muslims be associated with mendacity." He added that the issue of sincerity is contained in one of the Chapters or Surahs of the Holy Quran and so if one finds a Muslim engaging in any of such anomalies it is either out of ignorance or the fact that not all human beings are upright as demanded by their religious persuasions.

Alhaji Inusah must be in a real dilemma. The dilemma of one who has to come to terms with his politics and his mosque.