Former Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee has called on Muslims in Liberia to use the holy month of Ramadan to pray for justice and accountability, accusing the Boakai-Koung administration of targeting the country’s Muslim community.
He did not provide any clear evidence, and the government has rejected those claims despite recent sentiment of ethnic targeting from people including Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh
In a statement released as the fasting month began, Koijee said Ramadan should be a time of “spiritual awakening, moral courage, and divine justice.”
He urged the faithful to “raise our hands in fervent prayer against the malicious nature of the Boakai and Koung regime,” and warned that recent actions against Muslim institutions and leaders would not go unanswered in the eyes of the faithful.
Koijee accused the administration of allowing, and in some cases ordering, the demolition of mosques — which he described as the first such wave of mosque destructions in Liberia’s history — and of authorizing brutality against religious leaders.
“Our revered religious leaders and Imams… have been disgracefully brutalized by state security forces,” he said, adding that a directive from the Ministry of Justice disallowing a private security unit to protect worshippers during prayers had effectively stripped Muslim communities of their ability to provide their own security during Ramadan.
The former mayor framed the appeals in religious as well as political terms, saying that every demolished mosque and beaten imam would become “a testimony” and “a symbol,” and called on worshippers to pray that “Allah Almighty will hear the cries of the oppressed” and bring an end to further destruction.
