{
  "id": 13092465,
  "title": "It is a nuisance law; stop pretending it is a religious war",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/it-is-a-nuisance-law-stop-pretending-it-is-a-religious-war",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-09T10:05:25.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MyJoyOnline Ghana",
    "slug": "myjoyonline-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.myjoyonline.com/it-is-a-nuisance-law-stop-pretending-it-is-a-religious-war/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ghanaians, there are those who capitalize on every crisis to manufacture unnecessary controversy, employing a sophisticated political strategy to transform ordinary regulations into religious grievances and cultural attacks, exploiting the hunger for such tension among certain groups. The recent debate surrounding the 2026 Road Traffic Regulations and their prohibition of preaching inside moving commercial vehicles exemplifies this tendency, and it must be exposed for its flawed reasoning. Let us first establish the factual basis, as the truth has been obscured by manufactured outrage. Regulation 141 of the Road Traffic Regulations 2026 classifies religious preaching and street vending inside moving public or commercial vehicles as a public nuisance, subjecting offenders to fines or imprisonment. Simple as that – preaching inside a moving vehicle such as a trotro or bus is prohibited, while preaching in a church, mosque, or any open-air gathering is not. This law has been in place since 2012 and remains unchanged, with the 2026 version merely increasing penalties. The outrage over this regulation is premature, given its long-standing existence and equal application to all religions. The selective outrage from some Christian leaders, who claim this law targets Christianity, is misleading and dishonest. They conveniently omit the fact that the law applies equally to Islamic preaching as well. In countries aspiring to our standards of governance, it would be completely unacceptable for a preacher to deliver a sermon to unsuspecting commuters in a moving vehicle. The word of God can be effectively spread through churches, mosques, public spaces, and digital platforms, without infringing on the privacy and consent of others in shared public areas. Our religious harmony is genuine, but it requires vigilance against those who seek to exploit the law for political gain. We must enforce this regulation and disregard the manufactured outrage that seeks to undermine it, protecting the harmony our country so dearly values.",
  "summary": "Fellow Ghanaians, there are people in this country who will never miss an opportunity to manufacture a crisis where none exists, who have developed a refined political instinct for taking the most straightforward and the most defensible regulatory decision and converting it into a religious grievance, a cultural attack, an existential threat to faith, because the traffic in religious tension is…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}