The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has rejected the scheduled of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations over ‘its clash with the designated time for Muslims’ Friday prayers.
The WASSCE examinations will begin on 11th of August, 2020 but MURIC believes that with some of the subjects clashing with the Jumua’ah prayers, ‘the examination body, WAEC was sending invitation to anarchy.
MURIC said in a statement signed by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola that “WAEC is deliberately creating a wedge between young Muslims and the mosque. “A quick glance at the timetable recently released by WAEC shows that there are at least three clashes between examination periods and Muslim prayers on Fridays: Management-in-Living (2 pm, Friday 14th August, 2020); Literature-in-English (2 pm, Friday 21st August); Health Science (1.30 pm, Friday, 4th September).
“This timetable is exclusive, sectional, parochial, insensitive and provocative. It is an invitation to anarchy. It is designed to cause pain to Muslim candidates. It is therefore the handiwork of sadists and anarchists. It smirks of an anti-Muslim machinery oiled by the passion for hate and injustice.
“This is in spite of efforts made by us to guard against this kind of clash. It will be recalled that MURIC issued a proactive press statement on Tuesday 23rd June, 2020 under the caption ‘Consider the Friday Question in Your Timetable: MURIC Tells WAEC’.
This press release was expected to remind WAEC of the need to avoid the present controversy. But WAEC ignored it,” the statement read in part.