Editorial: Ghana must protect its tradition of Christian-Muslim tolerance

President John Mahama is right to warn Ghana's religious leaders that conviction must never become provocation. But the responsibility for protecting the country's remarkable tradition of religious harmony cannot rest with the President alone. It must become a shared national duty led visibly by the clergy, imams, the state, traditional authorities, the media and ordinary citizens.

Ghana is being offered a moment of choice.

The recent controversy involving a Christian pastor and a Muslim preacher has exposed how quickly religious disagreements can become emotionally charged, particularly when provocative statements are recorded, circulated online and amplified by thousands of people.

But it has also produced something that Ghana should not overlook: an opportunity to reaffirm what has historically distinguished the country from societies where religious differences have hardened into violent divisions.

President John Dramani Mahama's warning this week that “religious conviction must never become religious provocation” therefore deserves strong support.

The President was speaking at the opening of the 32nd Biennial General Council Meeting of the Assemblies of God, Ghana, at Gomoa Fetteh on August 20. His intervention came after the arrest of Islamic preacher Imam Masud Abdullah and Christian cleric Apostle Daniel Junior Yaw Adjei following separate videos that triggered intense reactions.

A further video showing the pastor being assaulted while in police custody added another deeply troubling dimension to the controversy.

President Mahama was right to draw a line between religious freedom and religious provocation.

Ghanaians have the right to worship according to their beliefs. They have the right to express their faith. But those freedoms cannot become licences to threaten, dehumanise, incite hatred or take the law into one's own hands.

Equally important, an offensive statement however deeply it may hurt a believer cannot become a justification for violence.

That principle must apply equally to Christian and Muslim communities.

Ghana has a history worth defending

The most important point in this debate is sometimes being lost amid the anger: Christians and Muslims in Ghana have lived together for generations.

They have married across religious lines. They work together, attend the same schools, serve together in public institutions, trade in the same markets and participate in each other's important occasions.

The National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, has repeatedly held up this relationship as something worthy of emulation.

In 2019, he encouraged the world to emulate the unity between Muslims and Christians in Ghana and called for continued peace and religious tolerance.

That history matters.

Religious harmony is not an abstract diplomatic slogan invented for speeches. It is something Ghanaians have

practised in their communities for decades.

And that is precisely why recent events should concern everyone.

We should not allow a handful of provocative voices whether Christian or Muslim to redefine the relationship between millions of ordinary Ghanaians who have no desire to fight one another.

The Chief Imam has already shown the way

Perhaps the clearest example of what Ghana needs now came not from a political speech but from the National Chief Imam himself.

On August 14, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu, spokesperson for the National Chief Imam, appealed for restraint, patience and forgiveness as tensions rose.

His message was striking because it acknowledged the hurt caused by the alleged remarks about Prophet Mohammed while refusing to allow that hurt to become a justification for violence.

He reminded Ghanaians that Muslims and Christians had lived together for decades and warned against allowing the current controversy to push the country towards interfaith hostility.

That is leadership.

The National Chief Imam subsequently brought together three men at the centre of the controversy, including the pastor and a man accused of assaulting him, in a public gesture of reconciliation at a meeting with religious leaders and the Inspector-General of Police.

The handshake was more than a photograph.

It was a message: Ghana's religious disagreements must end at dialogue, not violence.

That approach deserves to be replicated.

The clergy must match the message

The Christian clergy must be equally courageous.

The responsibility cannot be reduced to condemning violence when a Christian has been attacked. Christian leaders must also confront inflammatory speech when it comes from within their own communities.

The same standard must apply to Muslim leaders.

If a Muslim preacher makes a statement capable of provoking violence, Muslim leaders should condemn it clearly.

If a Christian preacher insults another faith or deliberately provokes its followers, Christian leaders should say so without hesitation.

There should be no “our side” and “their side” when the issue is violence.

There is only right and wrong.

This principle was reinforced by the Inspector-General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohunu, when he met religious leaders on 14 August.

He urged Christian and Muslim leaders to move beyond preaching peace from their respective pulpits and demonstrate unity publicly including through joint statements, shared meals and visible cooperation in communities.

That is exactly the kind of leadership Ghana now needs.

Peace cannot be a reaction to crisis

The National Peace Council has also warned against complacency.

Following the recent incidents, the Council said it had been engaging the Office of the National Chief Imam, the Christian Council of Ghana and other religious and traditional authorities to prevent the situation from escalating.

It made an important point: Ghana's religious diversity is a source of strength, but recent incidents should not create a false sense of security.

This deserves emphasis.

Peace cannot be something Ghana remembers only when tensions are already high.

Interfaith dialogue should not begin after a controversial sermon has gone viral.

Christian and Muslim leaders should be meeting regularly before the crisis, not after it.

What should Ghana do now?

The country needs more than appeals for calm. It needs a practical system for preventing religious tensions from escalating.

1. Create a permanent Christian-Muslim rapid-response mechanism

The Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Office of the National Chief Imam, the Ghana Muslim Mission and other recognised religious bodies should establish a permanent interfaith mechanism.

When a provocative sermon, video or incident emerges, representatives should be able to meet immediately, establish the facts and issue a joint statement.

Silence creates a vacuum.

Social media will fill that vacuum with rumours, anger and misinformation.

2. Make joint appearances normal

The IGP's suggestion that Christians and Muslims should be seen standing together deserves serious consideration.

Joint press conferences should not happen only during crises.

Let Christian and Muslim leaders visit communities together. Let them appear together on television. Let them condemn violence together. Let them organise community projects together.

The public needs to see unity, not simply hear about it.

3. Make religious literacy part of education

Young Ghanaians should understand that disagreement between religions is not the same thing as hostility towards people of another faith.

Schools can provide age-appropriate lessons on religious diversity, tolerance, conflict resolution and responsible social media use.

The objective should not be to persuade a Christian to become a Muslim, or a Muslim to become a Christian.

It should be to teach both that another person's faith does not make that person an enemy.

4. Religious leaders must police their own platforms

Every major religious body should develop clear guidance for sermons, public speeches and social-media content.

Freedom of speech does not remove responsibility.

A preacher with thousands of followers has enormous influence. A careless statement from a pulpit can travel across the country within minutes.

Religious authority therefore comes with an obligation to exercise restraint.

5. Let the law handle alleged offences

This is perhaps the most important rule of all.

If someone believes a religious offence has been committed, the answer is not retaliation.

The answer is the law.

The IGP has made precisely this point, warning that citizens must report alleged offences to the appropriate institutions rather than take matters into their own hands.

The state must also demonstrate that this principle applies equally to everyone.

No religious identity should provide immunity from the law.

But neither should anyone be assaulted, threatened or punished outside the legal process.

6. Protect the middle ground

Ghana must be careful not to allow the loudest voices online to become the country's religious representatives.

Most Christians are not represented by an inflammatory pastor.

Most Muslims are not represented by a provocative imam.

Millions of Ghanaians simply want to worship, work, raise their families and live peacefully alongside their neighbours.

Those moderate voices must be heard more loudly.

Mahama's warning should become a national commitment

President Mahama has done the right thing by speaking clearly.

But presidential statements alone will not solve the problem.

The President cannot monitor every sermon. The police cannot monitor every social-media post. The National

Chief Imam cannot control every Muslim preacher. The Christian Council cannot control every pastor.

That is why this must become a collective effort.

The President's 2025 engagement with the Conference of Regional Chief Imams also showed that religious tolerance has been on his agenda beyond the current controversy. At that meeting, he reaffirmed constitutional protections for religious freedom and said those guarantees leave no basis for discrimination between Christians and Muslims.

The latest controversy makes that principle even more urgent.

Ghana should not wait for the next inflammatory video.

The country should act now while the tension is still manageable.

We should not take Ghana's peace for granted

There is a temptation to dismiss the recent events as an isolated dispute between a few individuals.

That would be a mistake.

Ghana has something precious: a society in which Christians and Muslims can disagree profoundly about matters of faith while still remaining neighbours, colleagues, friends and citizens of the same country.

That achievement must not be taken for granted.

The Ministry of the Interior has itself described Ghana's long-standing Christian-Muslim tolerance as a cornerstone of the country's peace and security, while warning that peace must not be assumed to be permanent.

That is the lesson Ghana should take from this episode.

We do not need Christians to become less Christian.

We do not need Muslims to become less Muslim.

We need Christians and Muslims to become better neighbours.

We need religious leaders who understand that their microphones carry consequences.

We need politicians who refuse to exploit religious differences.

We need a police service that acts impartially.

We need a media that reports religious controversies responsibly without fuelling them.

We need social-media users to stop treating every provocative video as an invitation to retaliation.

And, above all, we need citizens to remember that before we are Christians or Muslims, we are Ghanaians sharing one country.

President Mahama's message should therefore not end with a speech at Gomoa Fetteh.

It should become a national compact:

Believe deeply. Worship freely. Debate respectfully. Condemn wrongdoing. Trust the law. And never allow religion

to become an excuse for violence.

Ghana has lived in religious harmony for generations.

Our task is not to discover coexistence. It is to protect it and pass it on.