Muslim Youth Urged to Show Leadership Skills

By Frederick Gadese-Mensah

Muslim youth in the country were on Saturday urged to demonstrate leadership skills to be relevant in the global community.

Sheikh Abubakar Ahmed Kamalu Deen, the National Imam for Shia community in Ghana, who made the call at a symposium on the 40th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Accra, said the time was rife for youth in the country to learn from the mistakes of the leaders in the past and to fashion out a bright future for the generation yet to come.

He said the Islamic Revolution of Iran had numerous benefits that Ghana could learn from, adding that Iranians were able to sustain their economy, fought poverty, corruption, illiteracy and handled other issues.

According to the Sheikh a major reason why Iran had progressed was because they remained a sovereign nation, yet in "Ghana we continue to bend ourselves to the will of other countries and this was why we could not effectively transform the country for the better."

Sheikh Kamalu Deen advised politicians in the country to analyse how Iran grew from their revolution, and to find how they could replicate what Iran did to make Ghana a better place.

Chairman for the symposium, Dr Osman Alhassan, Coordinator for Cultures and Societies at the Institute of African Studies, said the symposium was held in honour of the Islamic Revolution because it was important to pay attention to the happenings in other countries to serve as yard sticks for Ghanaian to be able to define "our own trajectory."

Speaking on the theme of the symposium, "The role of Islamic Revolution in Awakening the Youth on Global Leadership", he said the youth were an important part of society and it was an interesting opportunity to learn from the lessons gained from the Islamic Revolution and be able to instill the knowledge into the youth.

Ras Mubarak, Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, in a solidarity message congratulated all Iranians on the anniversary of their revolution and for keeping their sovereignty for all these years.

He urged Iran to foster closer ties with Ghana and other nations "and by doing so we could learn from each other to develop our resources and nurture the youth to be better leaders in the future."

Mr Ali Reeza Faramarzi, Head of the Cultural Consulate of the Embassy of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, said Iran went through many struggles before the revolutions, and even after many more obstacles to be faced, but still Iran survived.

The western countries, he said, continued to hamper the advances that Iran had made by publicising false truths and suppressing the achievements of Iran.

However, through the revolution Iran had developed its resources and empowered its youth with education and leadership skills and hopes that youths around the world would emulate Iran and encourage their youths to better themselves, and help their nations progress, he added.

Present at the symposium were envoy from the Embassy of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, representatives of parliament, the finance minister of Iran, representatives from Muslim communities and Muslim students from secondary and tertiary institutions.

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