The African Security and Diplomacy Centre (ASDC) has urged world leaders to resort to diplomacy in tackling issues of security.
The centre noted that it’s been 20 years since the World Trade Centre was destroyed, and that Islam could not be associated with terrorism, whose end product had always been loss of life and destruction on a massive scale.
A statement signed by the Executive Director of ASDC, Lt-Col. (Ambassador) Umar Sanda Ahmed (Rtd), and copied to the Ghanaian Times, yesterday said , the incident had globally become associated with a contorted version of Islam and “a blot on the conscience of all right-thinking citizens of the world.”
It said those who lost their lives in the twin towers were believers in God, adding that some of them were Christians and Muslims as well as other religions.
The statement indicated that the perpetrators of the attack claimed they were acting on divine edict issued by a leader whose only understanding of religion was to eliminate all who were not his compatriots.
It said that was not entirely true because Muslims were also targeted and killed and that the modus operandi had not changed.
“The question then is why are the silent majority quiet even when the Islamic Jihadists are proclaiming their brand of Islam as the only accepted understanding of the of the religion,” the statement added.
It said after 20 years of very active engagement between Ghanaian Muslims and the United States of America and United Kingdom through their embassies, the centre noticed that the American and European Muslims sought to have a better grasp of the religion than was thought.
The statement said through numerous programmes and visitation, the Islamic religious ‘space’ in the USA and the UK in particular had become enriched and “the Ghanaian Muslim preacher has come away with a better appreciation of Islam in the West.”
It said the material advantage gained from the numerous ‘da’wa’ sessions in Europe and the United State was a pointer to the fact that indulging in terrorism and extremism would not and could not sell Islam to non-Muslims.
The statement added that the “Hikma” (Gracious language) and a decent methodology would rather inure to the benefit of Muslims in the diaspora.
Itsaid that there was no doubt “there’s oft-repeated position” that Islam was a fastest growing religion in the United States.
The statement said as the world celebrates 20 years of the incident which resulted in many deaths, “it is the hope of this Centre that the world would resort to diplomacy to tackle issues of security anywhere on the globe.”
BY TIMES REPORTER
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