As more young people around the world leave their families to join extremist groups, President John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaian parents to pay more attention to the activities their children engage in.
According to the president, given the penchant for most of these terrorist groups to seek out recruits using social media and other new media outlets, it is necessary for all guardians to keep a close eye on their wards who might be targeted and radicalised.
“The social media and new information communication technology techniques which are used as a means of mankind’s progress, are used as propaganda tools to brainwash our young people and recruit them into these terrorist groups,” President Mahama said.
“I urge our parents to take an interest in the behavior of our young people because even here in Ghana, we have seen instances where Muslim youth, very learned and academic in Universities and institutions of higher learning who have abandoned their studies because of this terrorist propaganda. ”
In 2015, National Security confirmed that two Ghanaians had joined ISIS, including a 25-year-old graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
A Kenyan student was also arrested by the country’s anti-terrorism police on suspicion that was travelling to Libya to join the group.
Islam doesn’t condone terrorism
Speaking at this year’s Eid-ul Fitr celebration at the Black Star Square, President Mahama condemned recent attacks by the so called ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia.
According to President Mahama, the killing of women and children and the attack near the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, which is acknowledged to be one of Islam’s most sacred sites, contradicted ISIS’ claim of being ‘Islamists.’
“Recently in Baghdad, a bomb killed 175 people and injured 215 of them. Out of this number, nearly 40 were children, more than 70 were women. The holy Qur’an says even in war, do not kill women and children so how can they, in the name of Jihad, kill more than 70 women and 40 children, and say they are fighting a holy war. And yet the propaganda of these terrorists is so strong,” he said.
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