By Manga Salifu SUMA
With the motto and vision to unite all the sectors of the diocese under his Pastoral care, Bishop Bob John Hassan Koroma has made a passionate call to the Council of Imams in the city of Makeni to collaborate with him in the fight to consolidate peace, unity and social cohesion for the good of the country. In a well-attended meeting at the Pastoral Centre Hall on Saturday, March 8, 2025, Imams of all shades of Shia, Sunni and Ahmadist extractions honoured the call of the Bishop to build a peaceful and united Sierra Leone.
Born Muslim with the name “Al’Hassan” of Muslim parents at Bayo Street in Makeni, Bishop Bob John became a Catholic Christian through his upbringing by his aunt, the schools he attended and the priests he encountered who inspired him to the priesthood that has today blossomed in his episcopacy. Speaking to the Council of Imams of Makeni, Bishop Bob reminded them that since his appointment as a Bishop in February and his consecration in May 2023, he had pledged to collaborate with his Muslim brothers to promote the respect and dignity of everyone. This meeting, he stressed was to fulfill the promise he made in his maiden speech on his consecration to initiate a collaborative spirit with Muslim brothers to remind religious leaders of their indispensable role in resolving conflicts, settling marriage disputes and in remaining their unquestionable roles as moral guarantors of the communities in which they live. To put into context the collaborative spirit that he wanted to promote between Christians and Muslims, Bishop John gave a rousing tribute to the long-standing heritage of religious tolerance that has characterized Sierra Leone to the extent that members of the same family cohabit, fraternize collaborate together on a daily basis and yet belong to different faith expressions of Islam and Christianity with no skirmish: testament of a unique religious heritage of Sierra Leone that is the envy of many parts of the world. Bishop John further noted that not even the war which raged this country for 11 years had the audacity to become a religious war, as its origin was political. Key in his submission was the historic fact that the war had many proposals for its conclusion but that the instrumentality of the Inter Religious Council (IRC) pacified the warring factions and ushered in peace to our beloved nation. Counting on our Abrahamic origin that is common for Jews, Muslims and Christians, Bishop John urged all to build on the many things that unite us rather than the things that divide us, concluding that most of those who oppose and stir up trouble for people of other faith expressions do it out of ignorance of the richness of the faith of others. He concluded that the meeting was meant to be interactive to know each other, interact and prepare the ground for future collaborations as the Bishop cannot do it alone.
When the floor was open for reactions to the address of the Bishop, the Chief Imam of the Northern Region took the stage to commend the Bishop for his initiative, commending all the imams as very good and law abiding deserving the utmost respect of the Bishop, adding that he was not surprised at all that this was coming from the Catholics who have a very enviable history of inter religious collaborations. Paying tribute to the exploits of the Late Bishop George Biguzzi, he stated that whenever there were humanitarian supplies, the late Bishop George always supplied hundreds of bags of rice and other items to the Muslim confraternity and he also participated very well in the operations of the Inter Religious Council. The Chief Imam of the North further stated that “…he who builds a church caters for Christians. He who builds a mosque caters for Muslims. But he who works for peace embraces all, irrespective of your religious leaning”. On behalf of all the imams he embraced the Bishop’s initiative and pledged commitment to the initiative of the Bishop. All subsequent reactions enforced the Chief Imam’s position and endorsed the Bishop’s initiative. At the end of the meeting the following were the key areas of consensus for future intervention:
(i) The menace of drug abuse
(ii) Rampant Indecent Dress Code
To put structures in place for the coordination of future activities, Sheik Mohamed Jalloh was nominated by the Chief Imam of the Northern Region to coordinate and it was agreed that the next meeting will be held after the proposed meeting with the different Christian denominations of the Churches.