MUSLIMS: Where They Stand In the 2016 Elections

Mahamudu Bawumia speaks at well attended rally in the Northern Region

By Ekow Yeboah

The percentage of the Ghanaian population which is considered Muslim could be anywhere between 30 and 40 per cent depending on whose statistics you look at.

However Ghanaian politicians see Muslims as a significant electoral force which must be won over.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is sparing no effort to be counted amongst Muslims to enable him and his party to reap the electoral benefits.

Earlier in the year he made heavy weather of the fact that the NPP is presenting a Muslim/Christian ticket with Akufo-Addo as Presidential Candidate and him (Bawumia) as running mate.

In a brazen sectarian diatribe, Bawumia points to the fact of President Mahama and his Vice being Christians and hopes that it is sufficient to entice Muslims to vote for the NPP.

President Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) are also refusing to be out done and are sparing no effort to win the votes of Muslims.

Some NDC communicators have also sunk so low as to point out that although President Mahama is a Christian, his mother and many relatives including brothers are Muslims.

The NDC argument is that you don’t have to be a Muslim to work in the interest of Muslims.

Communicators of the NDC point to the fact that the national Muslim holiday was instituted when both President and Vice President were Christians.

Baba Jamal, a Muslim and Deputy Minister in the Mahama administration boasts that his government has made the annual pilgrimage to Mecca easier and more comfortable for Muslims.

Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini, Deputy Northern Regional Minister and also a Muslim is full of praises for President Mahama for the massive rehabilitation of the Tamale International Airport to make the journey to Mecca easier and more comfortable.

With the completion of the rehabilitation of the Tamale airport, Muslims going to Mecca do not have to travel to Accra before emplaning at great inconvenience for Mecca.

The NDC has also made Arabic examinable subject at the SHS level.

In all of these contests for votes,  it appears that nobody is really answering the question of what really Muslims want.

Are Muslims satisfied with declaration of a national holiday and comfortable and easy pilgrimage to Mecca?

From conversations with Muslims from all walks of life, it appears that the one most important concern of all Muslims is what has come to be known as Islamophobia in the West.

Muslims are being constantly discriminated against in the West largely as a result of prejudice.

Muslims are also very deeply concerned about the desecration of their holy sites in Palestine and the colonial occupation of Palestine by the Zionist regime in Israel.

Surprisingly all Ghanaian politicians no matter what political party they belong to have maintained tight lips over Islamophobia in the West and Zionist aggression in Palestine and its consequences for Muslims.

What may account for this silence?

Could it be the fear of the West?