Dr.
Mahmud Bawumia, the running mate of Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, the
2012 Presidential Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)
has incurred the wrath of the top hierarchy of the Muslim Community
over his decision to swear with the Holy Qur’an when he appeared before
the Supreme Court as the Second Petitioner yesterday.
To the
Muslim Ulama, the issues Dr. Bawumia was giving testimony to were not
entirely firsthand information but rather, matters that were partly
known to him or reported to him by second and third parties and so for
him to appear before the court and swear with the Holy Qur’an to “say
the truth and nothing but the truth” was in bad taste and sacrilegious.
They pointed out that he could incur the wrath of Almighty Allah if the information he is relying on in court turns to be false.
An
eminent Islamic scholar close to a meeting of Muslim clerics convened
to deliberate on the matter, disclosed to The Al-Hajj yesterday that in
strict Islamic practice, for one to swear with the ‘Holy Qur’an’ means
that whatever that person is going to say is nothing but the whole
truth, and so for Bawumia to resort to swearing by the Holy Qur’an for a
matter that he knows deep down his heart he cannot vouch for, save, for
the sake of its political convenience was highly condemnable in the
sight of our Maker, Allah.
Explaining further the concerns of the
aggrieved Muslim leaders, the source rather suggested that he could
have opted for the choice to affirm instead of swearing with the Holy
Qur’an.
Dr. Bawumia, who together with the NPP 2012 flag bearer,
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and NPP Chairman, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey are
seeking to overturn the declaration of President John Mahama as winner
of the said 2012 elections, opted to swear with the Islamic holy book,
the Qur’an when he mounted the witness box yesterday at the Supreme
Court to lead evidence for the petitioners who have cited widespread
irregularities during the conduct of the polls.
Nana AkufoAddo,
jointly with his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and party Chairman
Jake Obetsebi Lamptey in their petition before the Supreme Court are
requesting the court to annul 4,670,504 of the valid votes cast during
the election involving 11,916 polling stations where the alleged
irregularities took place.
 The Court has since narrowed the
essence of the petition to two, based on which they would give their
ruling after parties in the case have advanced their arguments.
First
of all, the court will establish whether or not there were statutory
and constitutional violations, irregularities, omissions and
malpractices in the 2012 general elections and then determine whether
these could have affected the results of the election.
But, Dr.
Bawumia’s use of the Holy Qur’an to swear on day 2 of the hearing of the
2012 election petition before the Supreme Court has not gone down with
many Muslim clerics.
However, refreshing information reaching the
Al- Hajj at the time of going to bed speaks of crunch meetings being
organized by the Muslim leaders to evaluate the implications and the
possibility of averting any calamity that could befall Bawumia following
his use of the Qur’an to swear over a matter whose veracity, he could
not completely and totally vouch for.
“He (Bawumia) is one of our
own and therefore we are concerned about what happens to him after the
incident”, a source told The Al-Hajj.
Throwing more light on the
matter, two Islamic Clerics Sheikh Mohammed Bagaya and Ustaz Tahir
admitted, high penalty awaits whosoever commits such a dangerous
religious sacrilege but differ on the remedies.
Whereas Sheikh
Bagaya believes that the possible dangers of such a crime could be
averted if the culprit could fast for some prescribe period or feed
orphans for some period of time, Ustaz Tahir indicated there could not
be remedies for such a crime. |
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