Former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Dr Opuni Frimpong says the Ghana Education Service cannot employ imposition as the means to address the impasse between the Muslim students and Wesley Girls High School.
According to the Convener for Alliance for Christian Advocacy Africa, the Islamic leaders, the government, the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and the Wesley Girls High School should use the old principle of dialogue to address the gridlock and not an imposition.
Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Dr Opuni Frimpong pleaded for the various stakeholders to use dialogue as it has been the means over the years in resolving any misunderstanding among the various religious bodies.
“I will plead that it should be dialogue, and imposition will not help solve the issue. Using order in the matter of faith does not help because the religious schools were established on their faith and this cut across in both Christian schools and Islamic schools,” he pleaded.
He maintained that over the years, the various religious schools have certain elements of their faith that they protect in their schools; thus, dialogue should be the only way to resolve any issue of the faith affecting someone and not an imposition.
“For instance, on Fridays, every Islamic school teach for some few hours and they will not teach again for the rest of the day. You cannot go to an Islamic school and say that you will teach because you are a Christian. You cannot also say that you are a Christian and for that matter, you are going to establish a church in an Islamic school like T.I Ahmadiyya, and likewise a mosque cannot be established in Presec School,” he argued.
“ . . you cannot go to SDA school where earring is not accepted and say that you will wear earrings; you cannot do that . . . certain elements of the faith of the religious schools are protected in the schools,” he stressed.
He was of the view that God has blessed the country with religious tolerance and inter-faith harmony and that such understanding that has existed among the religious bodies for many years should be maintained; reiterating that the understanding has been based on dialogue and not an imposition.
