Another Ramadan Ends

The curtains have been drawn over yet another Ramadan fasting and with it, Muslims who partook in the spiritual journey are presumed cleansed of the sins of the elapsed year.

We join our numerous readers in the Islamic faith as they commemorate the occasion with feasts and beseech the good God to bless them all for a momentous religious ritual, one of the pillars upon which the faith is hinged.

Islam is a religion of peace but the past years have witnessed the faith coming under serious strains of stereotyping. While some of the impressions are unwarranted and borne out of ignorance about what the religion entails, others are fueled by some bad nuts within the faith through their conduct. Every religion has bad nuts whose actions tend to give the unwanted colour to the faith.

The suicide bombers of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have not spared even mosques with Muslims at prayer are certainly not real believers in the religion they claim to belong to. Otherwise, they would not kill other human beings, contrary to the dictates of the religion that no life should be taken by another person except under certain situations like self-defence or in defence of property. To kill persons at prayers therefore is the most callous thing one can imagine and expect of the so-called Muslims.

Bombing an aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers in the name of Islam cannot be acceptable by the terms of the religion. Yet, these infractions have gone on, especially in the past few years, soiling the good name of one of the two great religions and the fastest growing one in the world for that matter.

It is for Muslims therefore to work towards correcting these negative impressions by ensuring that their rogue colleagues are told the blunt truth about their unislamic conduct.

In Ghana, especially Accra, the impression about the Muslim youth is anything but good. Many of them are regrettably associated with unruliness and indiscipline, an impression which has, on some occasions, attracted an intervention from scholars and even Imams in some mosques during their Friday sermons. Regardless of these interventions, the reckless riding of motorbikes and the recourse to oddities such as ritual murders to make money have characterized the nature of some Muslim youth.

This is a reality which concerned Muslims in this religious community are living with. Unfortunately, their pleas for a change in habit have fallen on deaf ears.

It is our prayer that the just-ended Ramadan would see a new Muslim youth, ready to adhere to the tenets of the religion which upholds discipline.

Let Muslims share thoughts over the foregone as they constitute serious challenges to the religion. We also ask that government considers the calls for the increase in the number of holidays for Islamic festivities to two days, given the periodic confusion that renders a uniform date for the celebrations impossible.

We have taken note of the non-uniformity of the Eids this year because not all members of the faith started the fasting on the same date. There should be unity of purpose among Muslims so that such disparities do not crop up. Be that as it may, we wish our numerous Muslim readers and others Eid Mubarak.

Source: Daily guide (Editorial)