Hamjatta,

Thanks for another insightful piece. One thing that struck me about Mr.
Al-Ghazzali's brilliant piece is the info that some people (Muslims) claim
that Christians are over-represented in High Places, and they're bent on
hijacking the govt. machinery, thus the need for Secular Law. And this made
me ask "why now?" Surely, the First Republic had Christians in High Places.
In fact, except for Sara Janha, ALL of Jawara's Secretary Generals were
Christians: Eric Christensen, Jabis Langley, Francis Mboge. Not to talk
about the countless Perm Sects, and GMs. So, what has changed?

What has changed is one name -Yaya Jammeh, - our country's leadership.
Things that we've always taken for granted in the Gambia like religious
tolerance are now in jeopardy because of this man. While growing up, did you
ever give a hoot whether a Sang Mendy is an animist, or Pierre Mankabu is
Catholic? Show me a Gambian who cared about such, and I'll show you a
foreigner! How many times did the people of Banjul vote in James Gomez Sr.
as their Mayor though he's Christian? Did anyone cared about his faith? But,
all of a sudden, both ethnicity and religion are issues that matter in our
public lives. I'll tell you what's going on.

Like all despots, Yaya Jammeh KNOWS VERY WELL that his rule is illegitimate!
A friend of mine puts it best: "You cannot steal people's nation in broad
day light, and sleep at night." True words. This man knows that the only way
he can remain in power is to set one group against another. Just review the
things he tells the disparate groups that go to "visit" him. In fact, when
you monitor what Yaya tells his various audiences, you can't fail to see the
wedge that he purposely erects between and among groups. It's like listening
to different people speak. When he looks at his audience, he tells  them
exactly what he THINKS they want to hear: "The I'll bury (our opponents) Six
Feet Deep speech to the July 22nd Movt; the I'll introduce Sharia next year
to the group of Imans; the Progressive Good Governance speech he gave the UN
General Assembly in '98; His assertion at the Freedom Forum on that same
trip; etc."

Remember the rambling speech he gave after kicking out Bishop Johnson as
"IEC" Chairman? Yaya said in that mumbo-jumbo that he "won't allow anyone to
use religion to cause trouble" in The Gambia. What is he implying here? What
message was he sending to idiots like Iman Fatty who view all non-Muslims as
less than human? You see the danger this man poses to our society? Each of
his audience gets what they want, and he continues doing his slimy things in
the back ground. Make no mistake about it: Joe Joof is getting his green
lights from Yaya Jammeh. So is the crazy Iman Fatty! Each of them is
promised diametrically opposed things. And it's not just religion. As far as
I'm concerned, we had a perfect Secular State under Jawara. If you're
friends, or neighbors with Christians, you joined them in celebrating, or
mourning their various life events. They did the same for you. We married
and dated each other like it's nobody's business. Because it isn't! So where
is all this religious crap coming from?

The bottom line is that Gambians need to be honest with themselves and each
other. I simply refuse to believe that a nitwit like Yaya Jammeh is capable
of fooling us. Rather, what we have is a shameless jostling for High govt.
positions that leads many to ignore the larger picture. As long as Yaya
Jammeh rules that society, things WILL always keep going downhill. (I used
to be called names for saying this, but not any more...) With him, it'll
always be Jola against Fula, Mandingo against Wollof, Serere against Aku,
etc, etc. It's the ONLY trump card Yaya has, and he'll keep playing it as
long as we let him. (He banks on people's greed to sell this garbage.) This
"secular" issue has nothing to do with how the average Gambian interracts
with his neighbor of a different faith. What people believe in is their
private business. We don't need a law to legislate what we've been
voluntarily doing for generations: letting others be what they are.

Saul.


Brother Saul,

First of all, i join Brother KB and else in extending you a belated
congratulation on your powerful polemic on Kebba Joke. I wonder if we will
ever see him again - he has taken too much flak of late to keep a straight
face on this List. My instincts inform me that he will surface again with
another garbage. Bloodsucking cowards like Joke never get it until they get
their own taste of the medicine Jammeh has been precribing to all his
critics. There and then he shall realise that we aren't haters or extremists
but people who have a conscience and acted thus because our consciences
cannot let us tolerate the intolerable degeneration of civility in the
Gambia.

_________________________________________________________________
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