Christians and Muslims in Ghana have, since the last half-century at least, co-existed warmly.
From the neighbourhoods and streets into markets and schools, workplaces and farmsteads to the playgrounds and political life, relations between the two leading religious communities have been excellent.
Even in indigenous communities that husband Zongos and other settler communities, everybody has always respected his neighbour and knows cultural boundaries that need not to be crossed.
The catechists and Mallam or Muslim priest have always related warmly, while at the traditional levels the chiefs and community elders have interacted freely and warmly, sharing love during feasts and supporting one another in times of calamities.
Indeed, it is reported that in the raging conflict in Indonesia, it is that kind of brotherly love between the two faiths that has helped to minimise the excessive violence coming from jihadist elements.
Friendly educational/cultural systems
In our public schools, we have always had our Muslim brothers observing their faith rites, while Christians in the Scripture Union or any such fellowship equally observe theirs.
In the classroom and on the playground, we have always mixed freely, including sharing meals and enjoying the consummation parties that are associated with each religious community.
In the free expression of faith, we have engaged each other warmly, without fights as we see in some communities in the Sahel. And while crossing the line to marry on the other side has been a bit challenging, we have never got to the point where force has become the argument.
Mutual respect
We have culturally been able to co-exist because we have all come to the realisation that religion is about being law-abiding in the same manner culture and politics are about our common cultural and national visions in which mutual benefit and cooperation is an underpinning demand.
As we have experienced in normal healthy communities, it is the regard for other faiths and beliefs and their outworking in civic and communal lives that help build tolerance and unleash the common potential of people in developing harmonious societies.
So that we maintain that warm religious relations that we have been known and admired for, we appeal to both leaders on the side of the Christian and Muslim faiths to be discreet in drawing policy for educational institutions run under their authorities.
They should also find ways in which school heads and administrations could tolerate the traditions and beliefs of other faiths, without necessarily undermining the foundational faith of that body.
We believe this should underpin the efforts being made to settle controversies at the Wesley High School in Cape Coast in respect of fasting by a Muslim student.
Cherishing what we have
To come clean out of the confusion attempting to engulf our two respectable faiths, it is our opinion that the leadership of both faiths iron out the knotty areas in a manner that will improve relations.
Because we are all Ghanaians with a common destiny, it behoves us to learn to tolerate and live with another within the boundaries of healthy tolerance and civility in fashioning our ambitions with only the wellbeing of Ghana in mind.
So that we succeed in this battle to repair and consolidate our relations, we would also appeal to the politicians who survive on making capital out of petty issues, by fanning flames of propaganda, to wise up.
As a country, we have come very far in building the kind of peaceful co-existence we have between Muslims and Christians. Let’s cherish and further seek to consolidate it, as we jointly take steps to fix more pressing developmental challenges that confront the nation.
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