{"id":96949,"date":"2015-03-06T07:30:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T07:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=96949"},"modified":"2015-03-06T08:09:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T08:09:20","slug":"religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can’t intervene yet – Bekwai MP"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minority spokesperson on legal and constitutional affairs, Joe Osei Owusu has defended\u00a0Parliament’s decision not to join in recent debates over religious tolerance and the alleged infringement of the rights of certain religious groups.<\/p>\n

Joe Osei Owusu, justified Parliament’s decision, saying the House does not interfere in matters that are “within the arms of the executive.”<\/p>\n

Despite several calls for Parliament to intervene, he added that the time may not be right for the legislature to become involved in such a\u00a0\u00a0sensitive issue.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”6yOELP9juNEDI4vWh182J6BqRIWIW4pV”]Speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong> in response to suggestions that Parliament’s unwillingness to join the debate may have contributed to the escalation of the debate, Mr. Osei Owusu said: “I don\u2019t know what parliament could have done. Parliament does not take on matters that are firmly within the arms of the executive. In that respect all we could do is advise them. But we can\u2019t purport to take on a matter like that unless someone from Sekondi \u00a0had made a statement bringing out certain issues, then Parliament would have gone in to investigate that and advised or urged the leadership as to what they ought to do. If it requires legislative intervention then we make recommendations to the executive. As it is now, we are not able to initiate legislation on our own. But I think that it has not reached the stage where Parliament ought to intervene.”<\/p>\n

Don’t fix what isn’t broken\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bekwai, however, expressed concern over the recent disagreements, suggesting that there should be an effort to maintain the structures\u00a0which have seen both religions\u00a0co-exist peacefully over the years.<\/p>\n

“My \u00a0view is that each party has a right in the constitution. We should respect the rights of Muslims and Christians as enshrined and protected in the constitution. But I also believe that If it\u2019s not broken, don\u2019t fix it. We have lived in this country, side by side all religious groups for many years. Suddenly things that were never issues, never points of controversy are becoming controversial. That gives me cause for concern. \u00a0What I suspect is that fundamentalist influence is growing in this country. I think what we should focus on are the things that unite us as a people. We\u2019ve never had problems between Christians and Muslims; Christians in Muslim schools, Muslims in Christian schools,” he explained.<\/p>\n

\"muslim-demo-in-WR-28\"<\/p>\n

Nationalisation of local issue spun out of control<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Osei Owusu also spoke of his disappointment that such a sensitive \u00a0issue that could have been nipped in the bud at the\u00a0local level has blown up into a national discussion, which he says is a major reason for the current tension.<\/p>\n

“What I am not happy with \u00a0is the sudden nationalization of what should have been a local issue. Suddenly it has taken a turn of Catholic bishops, Muslim leader, which shouldn\u2019t be the case. I think we should have just \u00a0handled the complaint the Sekondi Muslim leaders had, investigated it and dealt with it at that point. The moment we allowed it to become a national issue and to be discussed nationally on \u00a0radio, the sensitivities may be lost and we may not be able to treat them with the level of sensitivity and economity that is required,” he said<\/p>\n

The government issued a directive calling on schools to desist from forcing Muslim students to attend morning devotion in schools and perpetuating other forms of discrimination or risk facing sanctions<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, following a demonstration by Muslims in the Western Region, a call that was reiterated by President John Mahama<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the \u00a0Catholic Bishops released a statement in response to the directive<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, describing the Government\u2019s threats of sanctions against the schools as \u201cunwarranted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ghana Education Service<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (GES) also issued a directive compelling all students to participate in the morning devotion if it was part of the school rules.<\/p>\n

The Muslim Students Association has since rejected this directive<\/strong><\/span><\/a> from the GES and called on Muslim students to disregard it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By: Edwin Kwakofi\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minority spokesperson on legal and constitutional affairs, Joe Osei Owusu has defended\u00a0Parliament’s decision not to join in recent debates over religious tolerance and the alleged infringement of the rights of certain religious groups. Joe Osei Owusu, justified Parliament’s decision, saying the House does not interfere in matters that are “within the arms of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":12294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[43,38],"yoast_head":"\nReligious tolerance dispute: Parliament can't intervene yet - Bekwai MP - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can't intervene yet - Bekwai MP - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Minority spokesperson on legal and constitutional affairs, Joe Osei Owusu has defended\u00a0Parliament’s decision not to join in recent debates over religious tolerance and the alleged infringement of the rights of certain religious groups. Joe Osei Owusu, justified Parliament’s decision, saying the House does not interfere in matters that are “within the arms of the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-06T07:30:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-06T08:09:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/120530819_myebaynewsphoto_24.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"wp-needuser\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"wp-needuser\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/\",\"name\":\"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can't intervene yet - Bekwai MP - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-06T07:30:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-06T08:09:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/082ce6f21d23820875eabfffabe66278\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can’t intervene yet – Bekwai MP\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\",\"name\":\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"description\":\"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/082ce6f21d23820875eabfffabe66278\",\"name\":\"wp-needuser\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca736ce957cdd49525b860ab3ccffa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca736ce957cdd49525b860ab3ccffa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"wp-needuser\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/wordpresss.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/wpsupp-user\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can't intervene yet - Bekwai MP - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can't intervene yet - Bekwai MP - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","og_description":"The Minority spokesperson on legal and constitutional affairs, Joe Osei Owusu has defended\u00a0Parliament’s decision not to join in recent debates over religious tolerance and the alleged infringement of the rights of certain religious groups. Joe Osei Owusu, justified Parliament’s decision, saying the House does not interfere in matters that are “within the arms of the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/","og_site_name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3","article_published_time":"2015-03-06T07:30:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-06T08:09:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/120530819_myebaynewsphoto_24.jpg"}],"author":"wp-needuser","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@citi973","twitter_site":"@citi973","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"wp-needuser","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/","name":"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can't intervene yet - Bekwai MP - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-06T07:30:35+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-06T08:09:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/082ce6f21d23820875eabfffabe66278"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/03\/religious-tolerance-dispute-parliament-cant-intervene-yet-minority\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Religious tolerance dispute: Parliament can’t intervene yet – Bekwai MP"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/","name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","description":"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/082ce6f21d23820875eabfffabe66278","name":"wp-needuser","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca736ce957cdd49525b860ab3ccffa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ca736ce957cdd49525b860ab3ccffa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"wp-needuser"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/wordpresss.com"],"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/wpsupp-user\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}