Paynesville – The Chair of the National Muslim Council of Liberia wants Muslims to use the recent fire disaster as a sign of reconciliation, terming it as “first human calamity in Liberia.”
“The situation has no tribal basis and has been a concern to not only all Muslims but Liberians and the world at large,” Sheik Omaru Kamara said.
He said there is rumor circulating in some quarters of the public that the recent fire disaster at the Bassa Community Koranic Recitation Center was not natural.
Kamara told scores of Muslims at the 72nd Mosque in Paynesville, Friday, September 20, that they should not believe that the incident was unnatural.
“We should not think that anybody did this situation to us, but the Almighty Allah. If anybody do this to us, we have no reason of that, because, we are not security people. Whether it was artificial disaster or natural, only the Almighty Allah knows.”
The prelate told his congregation that Christians have been more concern about the situation.
This, according to him, shows how the world is concern about the tragedy that left at least 26 children dead.
Imam Kamara said: “The Pope, who is not Muslim, has sent his Ambassador to me with a word of condolence. The ambassador and the Catholic Bishop came to me yesterday. This should show how the world is concern about you.
“It looks like the Christians were more concern than us, because all other persons show us concern in this situation.”
At the same time, Montserrado County District Number Five Representative Thomas Fallah said the government is concerned about the situation and will do everything possible to ensure that parents of the deceased have “a peace of mind.”
Speaking when he went to sympathize with the Muslim Community, Fallah restated President George Weah’s commitment to reconstructing the facility.
“Those that left have left for good but the structure behind must be reconstructed,” Fallah said as he presented 150 bags of rice, two cows and L$250,000 to the Muslim Community in his district to help upkeep them as they go through the time of bereavement.
The Koranic Recitation Center destroyed by the fire is located in Montserrado County’s District Five, Fallah’s constituency.
“Peace messages are the ones we encourage in this kind of time, and I encourage you the Imam to preach the message of peace,” he said.
At the same time, the Chief Imam of the 72nd Mosque Sheik Yusuf Kamara lauded the lawmaker for “remembering us in this situation”.
“We continue to pray to Allah for the victim in our county. This, I am not able to overcome since the situation. The victims were not in my Mosque, but Fallah has also been sending food to us that has helped the children, when they were alive,” Imam Kamara said.
“You must not shift blame. It is not witchcraft, community envy, because what happened is a decree from Allah.”