. Before getting into serious debate I will say; there is two sides of every story. You don’t listen to one person without listening to the other. If you heard the story (of government assisting in Hajj) from a friend and did not get the chance to listen from the government’s side, please research it. Write to FM stations, Ghanaweb.com, libraries etc and they will refer you to an article. Be open minded, read, read to understand before criticism.

When Ghanaians start to mantra that the government is prioritizing or helping the Muslims and not the Christians, they should first and foremost try to understand the issue before jumping into an argument.

I have lived in abroad since my child hood and I always advice Ghanaians here that; you either learn to live with your neighbor (respect and understanding) or be on the move. We Ghanaians or Africans in general, live as brothers and sisters when we are abroad, why can’t we spend just a little time to understand each other when we are back home?

If a Ghanaian has a problem abroad, the country in question either deliver the person to the embassy or deal with the government in diplomatic way. Going to hajj has a lot of conditions outlined by the Saudi government. And in some cases the Saudi government hold the Ghanaian government responsible (example insufficient funds, sickness etc, etc). If something goes wrong, the last option of the Saudi government is to call the Ghanaian government to clean up. So my fellow citizens please try to read yourself (if you can). Read, research and understand it and don’t just listen to my friend says, that person said and so on and so forth. We learned since in the secondary schools that there is something called cause and result (from social studies) and we repeated this even in reading science and philosophy in tertiary level. Why can’t you sit down for an hour and research to understand why Hajj, why religion, and what the government is saying, why it (the government) is intervening?

My conclusion is that; those of us saying negative things about Hajj, Muslims and Islam; please try to understand the issue before insulting Islam. Even if you don’t like the government, do not insult the Muslims. Muslims have done nothing wrong, nor have the Muslims wronged you in any way. Muslims will not start insulting Christianity just like that, because they believe in Jesus Christ and they have been taught not to insult any religion. If you have anything you want to argue on; just do that but no insults, no name callings. Everybody has the right to express his feeling but do that in a civilized way. If you believe in the teachings of Christ, your church, and your pastor you will be very cautious before insulting others. Try to read Obamas “Quote Of The Week” on this site. Thank you.

Tanko -Oslo Norway- bashiro@start.no- Aug 2009