It has also called for an inter-faith dialogue on the practice to help protect the nation's water bodies and forest reserves.

The conference made the pledge at its second meeting in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital last Saturday on the theme: "Empowering Imams for socio-economic development".

The two-day conference brought together Regional Chief Imams, their metropolitan, municipal and district counterparts and Islamic faith organisations and members among others to dialogue on pertinent issues affecting the development of the country.

Appeal

The National Coordinator of CRCI, Sualah Abdallah Quandah, also appealed to the government to resume the Arabic Instructors Programme (AIP) to promote the teaching and learning of the Arabic language in schools.

According to him, the quality of teaching and learning of the Arabic language in schools under the Islamic Education Unit was dwindling due to the cancellation of the programme.

At the annual celebration of the birth of Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W.) at Fadama in Accra in 2017, the Vice-President, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, said the then Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development had been mandated to recruit over 3,000 Arabic teachers in the country.

The first phase of the AIP was implemented between 2018 to 2020, which saw about 3,000 instructors deployed to various schools and learning centers across the country.

However, a few years after its implementation, the programme had been cancelled, making many Arabic instructors unemployed, thus affecting the quality of teaching and learning of the language in the country.

"The conference took particular notice of the challenges in ensuring quality teaching of Arabic in basic Islamic schools under the Islamic Education Unit as a result of the cancellation of the policy of recruiting Arabic teachers and is, therefore, calling on the government to resume the policy," Alhaji Quandah added.

Capacity building

The coordinator further said that the conference had resolved to develop the capacity of Imams at all levels to lead and manage the affairs of the Muslim ummah, while sensitising them to the need to establish district and regional Shura councils to consolidate unity and development.