The Coalition of Muslim Organisations Ghana (COMOG) has urged Ghanaians to work in unity and push Parliament to expedite work towards the passage of the anti-LGBTQI+ Bill laid before it four months ago.
In August, a Bill (Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Value Bill, 2021) was introduced in Parliament to further restrict the rights of LGBT+ members.
The Bill includes criminalising the defence of LGBT+ rights, a duty to report “suspects”, the promotion of conversion therapy, and the imposition of a stiffer punishment for homosexuality.
However, the international community and rights activists have widely condemned the Bill, putting Parliament in dilemma.
Speaking at a sensitisation workshop that sought to educate the Muslim ummah and leadership on the Bill in Tamale, President of COMOG, Alhaji Abdul Manan Abdul Rahman, said the processes leading to the passage of the Bill “is not a child’s play, and it will demand commitment of the ummah and the sacrifice of everyone.
Alhaji Abdul Rahman stated that countries that have already accepted the practice of LGBTQ+ are doing everything possible to ensure that the efforts Ghana is making to pass the Bill do not come to light.
He also alleged that opponents to the anti-LGBTQI+ Bill have also been creating divisions among religious leaders to have the Bill rejected.
The President for the Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Ghana (FOMWAG), Hajjia Hajara Issahaku Telly, stated that the practice of LGBT+ is forbidden in Islam, and called on all women to support the Bill.
While praying for Allah’s intervention, Hajiia Hajara also urged parents to be more committed to the upbringing of their children, adding that negligence on the part of parents could sometimes lead to social vices such as the LGBT+.
Mr. Adamu Ayamba, a resident addiction nurse, described LGBT+ as a mental disorder and called for the establishment of rehabilitation centres across the country to educate and counsel people who have been bedevilled by the practice in order to win the fight.
Alhaji Professor Yakubu Seidu, a retired lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who chaired the event, debunked claims that the practice of LGBT+ is a natural phenomenon, and thus, associated with human rights.
He added that LGBT+ is an insult to Allah because He (Allah) in the past punished people for engaging in the act and therefore would not be appropriate for He (Allah) to create someone gay or homosexual.
“Allah didn’t create anyone a homosexual, otherwise you’re accusing Allah of being a tyrant, you are accusing Allah of being unjust,” he said
Professor Yakubu encouraged politicians, more especially Muslims, to look unto Allah for support and not to be afraid of the many threats being meted out by the proponents of the LGBT+ who are riding on the back of poverty and inducing countries with money to accept the practice.
Source: Mypublisher24.com/Adam Abdul-Fatawu WUNIZOYA, Tamale