General News of Thursday, 20 January 2005

Source: GNA

Muslims pray for peace to commemorate feast

Cape Coast, Jan. 20, GNA - Muslims in the Cape Coast municipality on Thursday converged at the Holy Child school park to offer prayers in celebration of the Eid-Ul-Adha, their feast of sacrifice.

The regional chief Imam, Alhaji Abubakar Hassan prayed for the nation, the President and the Vice-President and ministers of state and asked for God's guidance for them in their endeavours to ensure a prosperous Ghana.

He called for unity among Ghanaians, irrespective of ethnic and political affiliations, and stressed that peaceful co-existence could facilitate development and must therefore be pursued.

The chief Imam also appealed to all Ghanaians to do away with petty jealousy and envy and strive to work hard to for accelerated development of the country and to pray for Allah's wisdom for those in authority.

The Sarikin Zongo, Alhaji Iddi, in a message, congratulated all Muslims on the occasion and urged them to serve Allah diligently. He also prayed for the President, the regional minister and all in authority.

The chief Imam, later slaughtered a sheep in commemoration of the feast.

At the Cape Coast Technical Institute park, Maulvi Abdul Hameed Tahr, regional missionary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, called on Muslims to train their children like how Abraham trained his son Isaac. He said if Muslims trained their children in the Islamic way, there would be peace in the nation and the world as a whole, stressing that because Muslims have failed to observe Islamic laws, "there is always trouble and violence in their communities", and that this impacted negatively, on Islam. Maulvi Tahr also expressed concern that said due to the behaviour of some Muslims, people have negative perceptions about the religion, and stressed that it was time for all Muslims to do away with such vices, to salvage the image of the religion.

Maulvi Tahr, reiterated the importance of education, and echoed calls on parents to educate both their male and female children, and pointed out that the lack of education among many Muslims, was a contributory factor to some of the problems Muslims face.

He urged them to strive to excel in whatever they do, adding that it was their responsibility to restore the honour of Prophet Mohammed and the Islamic religion, and to share whatever they have with the poor and needy to enable them to realise the true meaning of the festival.

Mualvi Tahr, asked them to continue to pray for the maintenance of peace in the nation.

Prayers were offered to thank Allah for the peaceful election last December.