The Islamic Senior High School (SHS) at Sromani, Dormaa-Ahenkro now under construction would be managed by government when completed and admissions would be opened to all persons regardless of religious persuasion.
Sheikh Zakaria Alhassan, the Chief Imam of Dormaa Central Municipality said this in an interview with the media after he had led the local Muslim community to offer the Eid-Ul-Adha prayers to precede the festival celebration at the Zongo Park, Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Bono Region.
The festival is annually observed by Muslims worldwide to remind them of Abraham’s obedience to God to offer his son for a sacrifice.
Sheikh Alhassan said nobody would be allowed to force anyone to change his religion to become a Muslim while in the school because ‘that will be contrary to the laws of Islam’.
He said the school would be the first Islamic SHS in the municipality, saying it would provide quality tuition to contribute in developing the human resource base of the country and therefore appealed to individuals and organisations to aid its construction.
Sheikh Alhassan observed most Islamic schools had about 80 per cent non-Muslim teachers, so restricting admissions to only Muslims would be improper.
He cited the Islamic Primary and Junior High School (JHS) at Dormaa-Ahenkro comprised a mixture of Christians and Muslims with the head teachers for the primary and JHS levels being a Christian and a Muslim respectively.
Sheikh Alhassan implored the media to check and lead the campaign to change the negative perceptions and tagging of Muslims in crime incidents and crime-related stories.
He said it was unfair to make generalization of one person’s crime as a group’s symbol and its character, arguing that ‘there’s no research conducted anywhere to justify the fact that the numbers of Muslims in the prisons are the highest’.
Sheikh Alhassan therefore urged all Muslims to make the effort by educating the youth, particularly in the local communities to exhibit positive attitudes to help in demystifying and changing the negative narrative.
Aided by some elders, Sheikh Alhassan slaughtered a ram to signify the essence of the festival’s celebration.
Source: Ghana News Agency