Islamic scholar, academic, politician and former Minister of State, Shaykh Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has described claims that Ghana risks being Islamised as political mischief intended to create fear and tension between Christians and Muslims.
He made the comment during the 2026 Liberty Lecture Series of the Danquah Institute at Alisa Hotel on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, under the theme “One Nation, Many Faiths: Emerging Threats to Religious Tolerance in Ghana”.
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid indicated that political actors had exploited recent developments to suggest that electing a Muslim president would lead to the Islamisation of Ghana and potentially plunge the country into religious conflict similar to what has occurred in Nigeria.
“Political mischief makers took advantage of the happenings of the last two weeks to poison the atmosphere and to suggest that voting for a Muslim president would trigger the Islamization of Ghana and set the country aflame, as has happened in Nigeria,” Abdul-Hamid said.
He said the political choices of Ghanaian Muslims, particularly during the 2024 general election, did not support the argument that Muslims were pursuing a collective political agenda to transform Ghana into an Islamic state.
“From the political choices of Muslims in Ghana, it does not seem to me that there is a grand agenda or a collective aspiration of Muslims to Islamize Ghana,” Abdul-Hamid said.
He argued that if such an agenda existed, the presidential candidature of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, a Muslim and then-New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, would have provided an opportunity for Muslims across the country to rally behind him on religious grounds.
“Were such an agenda to exist, the candidacy of Mahamudu Bawumia would have been the catalyst, and his candidature would have been the opportunity for Muslims to rally round it,” Abdul-Hamid said.
He said the 2024 election results instead demonstrated that Ghanaian Muslims did not vote as a single religious bloc, pointing to several Muslim-dominated constituencies that voted massively for former President John Dramani Mahama, a Christian, rather than Bawumia.
“The fact that Muslims in 2024 did not rally wholesale behind a Muslim candidate shows that no such agenda exists,” Abdul-Hamid said.
He specifically mentioned Ayawaso East, Ayawaso North, Asawase, Ejura, Tamale North, Tamale Central, Tamale South and Sagnarigu as constituencies where he said voters largely backed Mahama over Bawumia.
Abdul-Hamid also pointed to what he described as the reverse pattern in some predominantly Christian constituencies, where Bawumia secured more votes than Christian parliamentary candidates contesting on his ticket.
“The most prominent one being Assin South, where he beat his parliamentary candidate, who is a Minister of the gospel,” Abdul-Hamid said.
He further rejected suggestions that Bawumia’s political ambition was connected to an attempt to alter Ghana’s religious character, arguing that the former Vice President’s education and professional career had been centred on economics and national development.
“Mahamudu Bawumia is not seeking the presidency of Ghana to re-order the religious destiny of our country,” Abdul-Hamid said.
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