A two-day workshop on Population and Reproductive Health has began in Tamale. It is being organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in conjunction with the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana and the United Nations Population Fund. It is under the theme: “Religion, Family Welfare and Development”. Speaking on “Family Planning, the Islamic Perspective, the Third Deputy Head of the Ahmadiyya Mission, Hafiz Ahmad Saeed, said there is no verse in the Islamic Scriptures explicity banning Muslims from practising family planning. He said even though Muslims generally accept the aims and objective of Family Planning, they are not comfortable with some of its methods. Hafiz Saeed was of the view that Catholics and some Muslims often renege in their response to family planning because they feel that the global economic problems are not due to people having too many children but due to hunger, poverty and disease caused by the selfishness of a few advanced nations. He said as the UN is spending millions of dollars on educating the people of the Third World on the merits of Family Planning, it should equally educate the richer nations on the morality of using their technology in fighting hunger and poverty all over the world. End
