“In their wars of conquest, however, the Muslims exhibited a degree of toleration which puts many Christian nations to shame.”
--- E. Alexander Powell, The Struggle for Power in Muslim Asia
“The Islamic empire was able to play host to Christians and Jews for centuries; but the Western Europe has found it almost impossible to tolerate Muslims…in their territory…Islam kept the notions of social justice, equality, tolerance & practical compassion in the forefront of the Muslim conscience for centuries… (Islam) it has created a just society, which would enable both men and women to fulfill their true potential.”
--- Karen Armstrong, Muhammad—A Biography of the Prophet


It is very disheartening to see a seeming religious fracas rearing its ugly head at the hitherto cordial and cool relationship between the Muslims and Christians in Ghana. And an answer to the questions raised by many concerned citizens, especially, the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev Professor Emmanuel Asante, as to why a sudden misunderstanding between the Muslims and Christians has to do with the fact that, the new crop of the Muslim youth getting secular education are conscious of their religious duties and fearless to fight for their rights.
Unlike the older generations of Muslim students that had tolerated the violation of their religious rights, especially those from the northern part of the country, I can cite many examples; right from our current President, who we know was born a Muslim and many of his kith and kin from the north were gradually convinced and converted through some of the Christian activities in those schools, where their religious rights were snatched away from them, ending up becoming Christians. Research has it that, the post-independence missionaries upon establishing mission schools targeted the northern part of the country.
They would compel the prospective students to change their names or adopt Christian names as a pre-requisite for admission. This was how names like, John[Abdul Rahman] Mahama, Edward Mahama, Edward Salia, Gilbert Iddi etc emerged. And none of them would deny the fact that, these missionary institutions and their cronies in the various schools gradually brainwashed them into leaving Islam.
And this sad and scary situation had resulted into quite a large number of Muslim parents in the north and zango communities getting reluctant to send their children to purse secular education.

However, the reason why the Muslim community is reacting and protesting now is that, with the massive number of Muslim students[well educated in Islamic doctrine, unlike the older generations] getting admitted in secondary schools, they are committed to hold on to their religious practices. And the situation where Muslim students are compelled by school authorities to attend to Christian devotions and being threatened for observing their Muslim prayer is getting out of hand or worse. A particular case in point happened in 2008, when Mustapha Abdul Gafar, a Muslim student of Adisadel College was chased by his housemaster for his refusal to attend church service. He met his sad and unfortunate death in a bid to avoid or escape the corporal punishment of his furious housemaster, upon jumping from the story dormitory building. [http://ghanaweb.biz/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=141262]. Imagine what would happened if it were a Christian forced to worshiped in the mosque and ended up dying in this manner. This is a crystal clear case of religious extremism that Islam/Muslims are being wrongfully accused of.
And there are other instances reported to the various Muslim students organizations where Muslims are denied the opportunity to observe their group prayer in some schools.

Honestly, his Excellency President. John Dramani Mahama is absolutely right to lament the plight of Muslim students, because [in his mind’s eye], I can imagine he might have remembered how he and some of his colleagues from the north had fallen victims of this same dilemma. So juxtaposing that with the provision of our constitution, which called for freedom of worship and by virtue of his fatherly responsibility, he did called a spade a spade, by urging various school authorities as well as professional institutions to allow Muslim students observe their religious rights which unfortunately was countered by the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Association of Teachers and the Christian Council of Ghana.
The irony of this resistance to comply with the presidential directive is that, most of these mission schools are now being funded by the government through the tax-payers money or public purse which Muslim parents are part and parcel of its contributors.
And it is very unfortunate that, some hospitals claim they never heard about the rules, hence they continue sacking their staff members who were wearing hijab or Muslim head scarfs. Even before this incident, there have been several cases and complains by our sisters. I remember about two months ago, a very close friend of mine in New York was lamenting how his newly wedded wife, a nurse in Kumasi was compel to take off her hijab. She feels so embarrassed and irritated doing that, because as a Muslim woman[especially a married woman], hijab is considered the measure of her modesty and dignity outside her house. And besides, it would shift her away from getting attention by strange men even at work place, who would naturally be making advances to uncovered women.
[http://www.citifmonline.com/2015/03/04/muslim-nurse-sacked-for-wearing-hijab-to-work/#sthash.hmCDujhY.dpbs].
But if we really delve deep down into history, we will realize how both the very earlier custodians of Christianity and Islam lived in peace and tolerated and accepted each other’s faith.
History has it that, when all the effort of the non-believers of Makkah failed and the mission of preaching Tawhid [Oneness of Allah] remained unabated, they reacted violently against the Prophet[PBUH] and his companions and stopped him from entering the Ka'abah, and began to persecute the weak and the poor more intensely. Life became very hard and almost impossible to live.
So with this sad and scary plight of the Muslims, in the month of Rajab, the 5th year of prophethood, the Prophet[PBUH] allowed them to leave for Abyssinia, in Ethiopia, where the Christians rule and the first team of eleven men and four women were warmly received by the Christian king himself, Najashi or Negus. Among them were Uthman bin Affan, his wife Ruqqayah[the daughter of the Prophet[PBUH]]Hudaifah bin Utubah, Uthman bin Maz'un, Abbullah bin Mas'ud, Adul Rahman bin Auf, Zubai bin Al-Awwam, Mus'ab bin Umair, Amir bin Rabiah and Suhail bin Baida.
However, when the non-believers noticed that the Makkans, after being converted to Islam were leaving for Abyssinia and living there in peace and as safe heaven, they feared that their power organized outside of Makkah could, one day pose a great danger to the Makkans. They dispatched a delegation of two respectable persons; Amr bin Al-As and Abdullah bin Rabi'ah to Negus, the King. The delegation was sent with costly gifts for the king and his courtiers. After being permitted into the court, they first presented their gifts and then request the king to hand over some of their slaves who had a new faith [Islam] which was against the faith of their ancestors. The king promised to look into their demands only after investigating the matter. The king then sent for the Muslims to come to his court and inquired. On behalf of the Muslims, Ja'far bin Abu Talib, a cousin of the Prophet[PBUH], moved forward to explain to Negus, the king and his courtiers.
[And I always consider the beautiful, eloquent and articulate speech he made as the best advocacy statement to showcase what true Islam is and what it came to change].
Ja'far said: "…O King, we were people plunged in ignorance. We worshipped idols, we ate dead animals, and we committed abomination. We broke natural ties, we ill-treated our neighbors and our strong devoured the weak. We lived like this until Allah the Al-mighty raised among us a Prophet of whose noble birth and lineage, truthfulness, honesty and purity we all were aware. He invited us to acknowledge the Oneness of Allah and to worship Him. He enjoined us to speak the truth, to redeem our pledges, to be kind and considerate to our relatives and neighbors. He forbade us every vice, bloodshed, shamelessness, lies and deceit. He asked us not to encroach upon the belongings of our orphans[as they used to do before Islam] and not to vilify chaste women. He ordered us to offer prayers. We acknowledged the Messenger and believed in him. Because of this our people were estranged and they persecuted us. So when they tortured us under their tyranny, we fled to your country. We have come here, O King, to your country seeking your protection and we do hope that we shall not be dealt with unjustly."
Negus, the Christian king listened patiently to J'afar bin Abu Talib, then he asked him if he had something brought by his Prophet Muhammad [PBUH], from Allah. Thereupon, Jafar recited the opening chapter of Mary[Jesus' Mother], Suratu Maryam. Then all of a sudden, tears started rolling down from the eyes of Negus and his courtiers. The recitation being over, Negus remarked, "This and the Torah of Musa are radiations from the same Heavenly Light. " Then the envoys of the Quraish flung their last attempt and said, "O King, they are opponents of Jesus too. "By this they wanted the Christian king to grow angry at the Muslim migrants. Directly came the reply from Ja'far bin Abu Talib, "Not at all; the fact is rather, he Jesus is a salve of Allah and His Messenger." Negus the king said: "This belief is correct to the core and the Gospel also means the same."
Finally, Negus sent the envoys of the Quraish back empty-handed and refused point-blank to give the Muslims up to them. Along with this he returned their gifts thus rubbing salt in their wounds. This event occurred during the sixth year of the prophethood of Muhammad[PBUH]. With the ignoble defeat of the Quraish's mission, their ill treatment of the Muslims simply was aggravated.
The lesson in this history is that originally as we Muslims believe, all Prophets were sent as Muslims-coming with Islam in different forms, and it was Prophet Muhammad[PBUH] who sealed the entire religion of Islam. Secondly, I wish our Christian brothers would to learn from the exceptional tolerance, mercy and magnanimity exhibited by their own Christian king Negus, of the earlier generation.
Some Exemplary Tolerance of Prophet Muhammad[PBUH] towards Non-Muslims
In his last sermon during the end of the last pilgrimage, he had declared to the largest ever gathering that; “I declare all those issues causing bloodshed among tribes as null and void and as the starting point, I take back the claim to avenge a murder in my own family and the interest due on the loans by my uncle Abbass”.
According to Dr. Aslam Abdullah, in an article dubbed, “Did Prophet Muhammad[PBUH] spread Islam with a Sword?” in the January-February 2013 edition of The Message International magazine, entitled, “Clearing the Air & Knowing Muhammad”, that, “The best and most direct evidence for the way Islam was propagated are the words of Prophet Muhammad[PBUH] to St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai, during a time in history when no one was talking about freedom of religion, cultural pluralism and tolerance, or protection of human life. Prophet Muhammad[PBUH] wrote to the monks the following:
“This is a message from Muhammad bin Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily, the servants, the helpers, my followers, and I defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they [the Christians] are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the Ummah [Muslim nation] is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day [end of the world]”
The above quote by Dr. Aslam clearly crystallizes yet another statement by the Prophet [PBUH] discouraging and despising an act of violence, radicalism, extremism and terrorism against non-Muslims, that ISIS and other terrorist groups are doing. It rather advises and advocates mutual co-operation and social shielding towards the non-Muslims.

Prophet of Muhammed[of Islam] was the first to allow Christians & Jews to pray in his Mosque
The Prophet[PBUH] was the first person to ever established inter-faith relationship toward the rest of the two Abrahamic faiths (Jews and Christians). He used to allow Jews and Christians to do conduct their church/synagogue services in his mosque. There was an instance when the Christians left their cross (symbol of Christ crucifixion) in front of the Kiblah (direction Muslims face for prayer) and when it was time for prayer, and the companions were worried about praying in front of the cross and wanted to move it away from the kiblah[direction you face to pray], the Prophet[PBUH] ordered for a curtain and covered the cross and assured them that they could still pray in front of it, since their intention is not to worship the cross. The Prophet[PBUH] did that out of caution and courtesy in order not to allow them to touch the cross of Christians without their approval.
Umar refused to pray in a Church fearing some Muslims will invade the churches in future
During the time of the second Caliph of Islam, Umar Bunul Khattab, when Makkah was liberated a few years ago, Umar[the second Caliph or successor of the Prophet] was taken around by the Christian priests to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, one of the most sacred Christian churches, the Christians believe Isa[Jesus] was buried there after his crucification. As ‘Umar was going through the Church, the time for ‘Asr[late afternoon Muslim prayer] approached. Umar wanted to get out of the Church and offer prayer outside, The Church leaders[priests and pastors] invited him to offer his Muslim prayer inside the Church. He declined the offer saying: If I offer my prayers inside the Church, tomorrow Muslims may usurp it, because of my offering prayers, and turn it into a masjid.” There was indeed a masjid on the spot outside the Church where ‘Umar prayed that day. Umar must have seen the cross and the statues of Jesus, Mary and other saints in the Church He did not break any nor did anything to show his disapproval. Muslims in their long history followed the example of Prophet Muhammad and Umar by respecting the holy places of other religions.
Umar’s Exceptional Tolerance and Compassion towards the non-Muslims
He had a great concern for all the citizens, but paid special attention to non-Muslims. He felt their payment of Jizyah or taxes makes the Islamic State, both legally and morally responsible for their welfare and security. Whenever he came to know that a non-Muslim could not pay his tax because of poverty, he would exempt him and provide for his support from Baitul-Mal, the state treasury. Even on his deathbed he remembered them and advised his successor saying: “The Qur’an recognizes the Jews and the Christians as ‘Ahl Al-Kitab[People of the Book] and provides them full freedom of religion. “Our commitment to non-Muslims must be fulfilled. They should be completely protected against any foreign invasion. They should be treated equally in the courts of law, and no injustice should be done to them. Their taxes should be fair, and no tax should be imposed upon them which they cannot bear.”
Our earlier generations of Muslims, right from our beloved Prophet[PBUH] exhibited and are still exhibiting this sterling quality of tolerance bearing in mind so many injunctions that Allah made in the Qur’an urging Muslims not to compel others to worship the Islamic way against their wills, one of those verses is in Qur’an chapter 10 verse 99 where Allah says :“If it had been your Lord’s Will, they would all have believed – all who are on earth! Will you[Muhammad and the entire Muslims] then compel mankind, against their will to believe?” And I therefore challenge my Christian brethren to produce a single authentic verse from the Bible that God urges them to compel Muslim students to worship the Christian way or tell them to deny the Muslim students and staff at work their religious rights. I strongly doubt if there is, because the Qur’an and the Bible are from one source-Almighty Allah!
We do see the very countries that had sent and still sending missionary Christian ideologies, such as America and Europe exhibiting high sense of tolerance towards the Muslims in their various countries. There is no single school in America[as well as Europe] that I know that had ever expel a Muslim student from school due expressing his or her religious right. I remember recently my five year old daughter’s teacher, Miss Tomlin complained to me that , Aisha has been taking off her hijab herself, and wanted to know if that is okay, and I said, it is not much of a problem, because she is still young. Likewise the workplace, employers allow Muslim women staff to wear their hijabs freely, and even give them time and space to observe their prayers while at work. Some churches across the United States [a very predominantly Christian country] have even reciprocated the kindness of the Prophet to the Jews and Christians that I mentioned above by giving Muslims their church premises to pray in.
Recently, the mayor of New York, Bill De Blasio went the extra mile to express tolerance of the Americans by declaring two Muslim festivals of Eidul Fitir and Eidul Adha as public holidays, so all other children could stay home as Muslim children also do stay home to observe their holidays. Above all, President Obama said recently in a speech during an interfaith breakfast at the Whitehouse with religious leaders across the United States that, “The United States government has gone to court to protect the right of Muslim women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who deny it.” This is the very society we [Ghanaians] try to emulate in terms of divinity and democracy, and they are clearly exemplifying the tolerance of the earlier generations.
So as civilized and discerning people, in order for us to continue to live in peace in this country, we need to learn lessons from the earlier custodians of our both Christian and Islamic faiths, let us all be agents and advocates of change by adopting these unique elements of tolerance of our forefathers, so that we can also make history as they did in order for the up-and-coming generation of Ghanaians to read and write.
We therefore urge the various stakeholders such as; The Christian Council of Ghana, Ghana Association of Teachers, Ghana Education Service, National Peace Council, Federation of Muslim Council, National Council of Muslim Chiefs, as well as the Muslim Caucus in Parliament to sit at a table and dialogue, by reminding each other some of these historical cases of tolerance of the Christians towards Muslims and of the Muslims towards the Christians in order to arrive at a compromising stand, for the interest of national peace and security.
Husseini Yushau BabalWaiz,is the Research & Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives Inc. New York, Author of three books and tutor in Arabic and Islamic Studies..babalwaiz71@gmail.com