THE POLITICS OF THE GHANAIAN HAJJ

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 001426

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/W

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/24/2018
TAGS: GH KDEM PGOV PHUM PINS PREL
SUBJECT: THE POLITICS OF THE GHANAIAN HAJJ

Classified By: POL:GPERGL FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) SUMMARY. After two consecutive years of Ghanaian
pilgrims missing the Hajj and being left to camp out on the
fringes of Accra's airport, rival factions in Ghana's Muslim
community met in Ghana's high court on November 3 to
determine which group would have the right to organize this
year's Hajj. The primary litigant in the lawsuit was Shiekh
Muhammed Kamel, a radical cleric in Kumasi with Saudi and
Lebanese connections who may be using the Hajj as a means to
gain greater power in the Ghanaian Muslim community.
President Kufuor, well aware of the potential impact of
Ghana's substantial Muslim vote on the upcoming election, has
taken steps behind the scenes to work with Ghana's National
Chief Imam to quash the lawsuit, to give the Chief Imam full
authority to organize the Hajj, and to release funds that had
been deposited in the government-owned Agricultural
Development Bank by previous years' pilgrims. END SUMMARY


2. (U) For the past two years, Ghana's Hajj has been marked
by ineptitude and controversy, stranding pilgrims, most of
whom had traveled 500 kilometers from the north, at Ghana's
airport in Accra. The majority of those pilgrims never made
the journey to Mecca, and never had their money reimbursed.
On October 2, the Council of Muslim Organizations in Ghana
(COMOG) filed a lawsuit asking that a COMOG affiliate, the
National Hajj Council (NHC),be given exclusive rights to
organize Ghana's Hajj this year. The lawsuit named as
defendants the National Chief Imam (whose Interim Hajj
Management Committee is in the process of putting together
this year's Hajj) and Ghana's vice president Alhaji Aliu
Mahama.


3. (C) In a conversation on October 29 with Major Umar Sanda
Ahmed, a close advisor to Ghana's National Chief Imam, Poloff
learned that the Saudi government had put the Chief Imam on
notice that if he couldn't get his pilgrims to Mecca without
incident this year, Ghanaian Muslims would be banned from
participating in the Hajj for the next five years. Ahmed
admitted that the Chief Imam bore some responsibility for the
debacles of the past two years, having appointed a Hajj
committee from amongst his advisors which proved to be
monumentally incompetent. This year, he was determined to
conduct a flawless Hajj. He appointed an experienced
administrator by the name of Alhaji Munir (a deputy director
in the Ministry of Health) as the sole organizer of the Hajj.
At the Id celebration in early October, attended by
President Kufuor, the ChQ Imam and Kufuor conferred, and
Kufuor promised to back Alhaji Munir to organize the Hajj.
Kufuor, according to Ahmed, felt that the botched Hajj record
reflected badly on his party and his administration. Since
Kufuor is aware that the majority of the Muslim community in
Ghana tilts towards the opposition National Democratic
Congress (NDC),he hoped to gain political capital by working
with the popular Chief Imam.


4. (C) When he learned of the lawsuit, Kufuor apparently
asked the prominent Muslim businessman Asuma Banda, a former
schoolmate and the CEO of Antrak, Ghana's only airline, to
quietly resolve the court case. The case was first heard by
Ghana's Fast Track High Court on October 27. Banda attended
the proceedings and told the judge that he hoped to intervene
as a Muslim elder in the interest of "getting our people to
Mecca." When the judge adjourned the case to November 3 to
allow parties to come to settlement, the courtroom, packed
with supporters of the National Chief Imam, began shouting
insults at Banda and even had to be restrained from attacking
him as he departed the courtroom. What they did not know was
that Banda was actually not siding with the NHC, but was
interceding on behalf of the Chief Imam.


5. (C) Ahmed said that most of the groups originally
affiliated with COMOG had abandoned the organization and no
longer supported the NHC, which had been taken over by Sheikh
Muhammed Kamel, the vice chairman of the AhlusSunnah
Wal-jama'ah, a Muslim sect based in Kumasi. Kamel, educated
in Saudi Arabia, is in charge of the Saudi-financed Azhariyya
Secondary School in Kumasi, and according to Ahmed, is
supported by radical Lebanese businessmen in Ghana. He has
become estranged from the chairman of the AhlusSunnah, Sheikh
Umar Ibrahim, because Ibrahim began preaching reconciliation
with the United States following a visit there in which he
met with a number of U.S. Muslim organizations. Kamel
remains a virulent critic of US policy towards Islam and the
Muslim world.


6. (C) Ahmed further stated that Kamel has become
increasingly isolated, especially after filing his lawsuit
against the respected National Chief Imam, an action which
outraged most Ghanaian Muslims. Kamel himself did not appear

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in court on October 27, knowing that the courtroom would be
filled with supporters of the Chief Imam. Ahmed said that
Kamel's intentions in filing the suit had larger implications
than deciding who would organize this year's Hajj; it instead
was a ploy to see if he could gain greater power in the
Muslim community in light of the failing health of the aging
National Chief Imam. His efforts, according to Ahmed, had
backfired.


7. (C) On November 2, the day before the scheduled resumption
of the court case, representatives of several Muslim
organizations met at the home of the Chief Imam. Although
Kamel was not in attendance, other members of the NHC were
there, and according to Ahmed, they apologized to the Imam
and agreed to drop the court case. On November 3, that is
precisely what happened, and Asuma Banda told the judge that
the matter would be settled out of court and the Hajj would
go on.


8. (C) Ahmed also said that Kufuor had promised the Chief
Imam that his government would facilitate the release of some
$650,000 that had been deposited in the government-owned
Agricultural Development Bank by 728 pilgrims stranded in
previous years. Those pilgrims would be joining 1,300 others
who would be traveling to Mecca this year. (NOTE: Ghana's
annual Hajj quota is 3,000 pilgrims. END NOTE) Ahmed said
that Alhaji Munir was currently in Saudi Arabia finalizing
plans for the Hajj, and that he had contracted with Egypt Air
to make 8 flights from Ghana to Jeddah to accommodate this
year's pilgrims.


9. (C) Finally, Ahmed stated that the Chief Imam had also
been approached by John Mahama, the vice presidential
candidate of the opposition NDC party, who promised that if
his party were elected, the Imam would have their full
support in organizing the Hajj and that the fiasco
experienced under the NPP government would be a thing of the
past. While Ahmed said that the Chief Imam remains
scrupulously neutral in Ghanaian politics, both major parties
obviously find it in their interests to curry his favor.
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