IN OBSERVANCE OF this year’s Abraham Day at the Heritage Mosque on Gurley Street in Monrovia, Sheikh Abubakar Sumaworo, Grand of the Supreme Council of Fatwa in Liberia, intoned that Muslims should not consider themselves to be what he termed “second class” citizens in Liberia, but rather must stand firm in implementing and propagating the true teaching of their religion to all worshippers of the Islamic faith as they remain law-abiding in society.
HE, AT THE same time, admonished fellow Muslims here to participate in all national issues—if they are to ascend to public office in government, as the likes of other prominent Liberian Muslims who do not consider themselves as “second class” citizens and are nowadays making impact in the body politics and development process of the nation state at their various places of work.
TO MEET THIS demand, Sheikh Sumaworo wants Muslim parents to invest all their efforts in educating not only the boy child but equally so the girl child because, as he put it, “They are our future and need our utmost support to emulate the submissiveness of Abraham, thus getting on par with non-Muslim students in the walls of academia in the country.”
HE SAID FAILURE on the part of Muslim parents to impart moral values into “our children to emulate Abraham and withstand the challenges out there, and their future would be bleak”. He reiterated that the training or upbringing of every child in Liberia first begins from the home.
ON THE PROLIFERATION of narcotic drugs and substances that are negatively impacting the lives of the youthful population of Liberia, Sheikh Sumaworo called on government through the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) to further tighten its grips against this menace by ridding the country of it, and securing a brighter future for young people in the nation.
HOWEVER, THE GRAND Mufti of the Supreme Council of Fatwa, Sheikh Abubakar Sumaworo, used the occasion to appeal to the Government of Liberia (GoL) to recommence its subsidy support through the Ministry of Education to Islamic schools in Liberia to attract more school-aged Muslim students to the classroom, owing to the growing number of Islamic learning institutions in the nation. The Islamic scholar recalled that during the eras of the Late Presidents William V.S Tubman and William R. Tolbert, Jr., Islamic schools used to receive government subsidy from the Ministry of Education, in the amount of US$10,000 for all Muslim schools then, but said that is not the case today due to the establishment of the scores of Islamic schools now operating in Liberia.