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 ACCRA 00001426 002 OF 002 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. TEITELBAUM