I attended a college that was built and handled by a mission. And I had an opportunity to lead the students. One of the hazards that will come with leading students of such a school is to strike a balance between serving the interest of the institution ( the mission of the Mission) and the social and spiritual needs of those who do not necessarily belong to the Mission. If one has been in such a dilemma, one would understand what is means to be put to pressure to show others where power lies.
In this College, there was a Mosque, but there was no Church. So one of the classrooms that were closer to the Mosque was converted into a Church for daily prayers while on Sundays, students left the College to a nearby institution to have Church service. They were not stopped, by the way, even though they required to sign exeat to do so which they never got.
For a very long time, the church services happened at exactly the time that we prayed Maghreb( the prayer at sunset). Obviously, not being a Catholic service, the prayer went with a lot of singing and dancing. This ALWAYS disturbed our prayer much to the agitations of the students.
What did we do? I went to the Church and invited their leader. I sat him down and explain to him that our time of prayer is transitory. That means if we do not pray at the exact time, we may miss it entirely, but theirs was not. So if they could wait for the 10 to 15 minutes that we needed to pray, they could continue. We had an agreement then.
A few weeks later, as our Imam raised his hands a said “God Is Great” , which, by the way, is the meaning of Allahu Akhbar, the sound of a very big drum is heard from the church. As we prayed, our supplication were swallowed by serious dancing and drumming fifty meters away. I think my colleagues had had it up to their neck. They could not contain it any longer, they must show them that this is their college.
What did we do? We went to the Church again and repeated the earlier transaction. Then after that, we met the entire Christian Community, I think SU and CCR at the time with some leaders from town. We agreed that they will have to adhere to the treaty that we had. Until we left the college, this clash never happened again.
Why did we do that? We did so because the fundamental tenant of that Mission is tolerance for varied religious opinions which we followed to latter. In tolerating the Church, we were adhering to the basic belief of the Mission.
The reasons for this narration are not so many. The first is to show that, religious tolerance or intolerance as the case may be, is a matter for the individual. A group may have its mission, but that mission will be carried out by individuals. These individuals may be intolerant towards others, but that will not mean the group as a whole is intolerable. Wesley Girls was built by the Wesleyan Missionaries for the purpose of educating Ghanaians both circularly and spiritually, but most importantly, to imbibe in them the Methodist beliefs of Christiandom.
At the time, the current headmistress was not consulted if at all she was born. They built the school in order to contribute to Ghana’s education and to also promote their faith. At the time, they could tell Muslims not to attend the school or if they attended, they could not complain of religious bias because they knew what that school was set up to do. Saint Francis Xavier Minor in my hometown still operated like this. They may say that because that would have been a private entity operating to educate children in Christianity for the wards of parents who were willing to pay- an entirely private affair.
If however, this private entity become public entity, that seeks support from a budget that is funded by everyone, their power of choice between what to enforce becomes moot. It becomes at most, limited and has to follow the Constitutional requirements of providing education in Ghana. This has been followed by several other mission schools including those I attended.
While Saint Francis Xavier Minor does not admit Muslim students, Saint Francis of Assisi has a very large Muslim population- my girlfriends were there. And, there are other Catholic schools that have Muslim students who are allowed to practice their faith. I have taught in one of them and remember how the voice of Father Mathew Tuurosung- may God bless his soul- admonished students not to discriminate against each other. He lived it as an example and never gave any hint of hate for Muslim students. The story is not the same under some other persons.
My conclusion is that, we should not be quick to do broad brush stroking of the entire system discriminating against Muslims. We are the system which some people like the headmistress of the school will like to test. If we want to tackle something like that, we know where to go.
As a bonus, the Muslim MPs in Ghana’s Parliament last week met with the leadership of the Church of the issue and the church was supposed to have met the board of the school. It may not be only in respect of this fasting, but other Islamic practices as well. May God five is understanding and patience to wait when things aren’t quiet.
This post was first published on the writers, Facebook wall on Friday, 07/05/2021.
FAMZS MEDIA 