Assalaamu alaikum Borom 'Kerr Katim' 

Alhamdulillah wasalaatou wasalaamou ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wasahbih. 

Indeed, my thankfulness to you and respect to you as an elder and mentor is on public record. That said, like I told some folks in private, I am not surprised but very disappointed by your whimsical decision-making process with respect to the issue at hand. You wrote:

<the feeling I get is that many who wrote on the issue feel that my e-mail was rather crash, if not dictatorial>   

What an understatement! Every single email on the subject objected to your unilateral,  <crash> and <dictatorial> move except Matt Utbult ( who incidentally wanted to start an Islamic discussion after asking us to go to another site). Yes! More than 22 objections ( the last time I checked) against your single decision; including a list manager (who incidentally are not even consulted before deciding on an important issue such as gagging freedom of speech). This is the same Katim Touray who authored an open letter to President Jammeh reminding him about paying attention to democracy. It is the same Katim Touray who took list members through a democratic voting process to implement salient decisions in the interest of smoothly running the list. So you expect people to take you seriously as someone working towards cementing democracy. Hmmmm.

And now you unilaterally decide to gag religious discourse on Gambia-L with a flimsy Kamal ata Turk like reason - divorcing the secular from the religious. It has failed even in Turkey where Hijaab is banned. You never clearly defined that all along, i.e. making Gambia-L a completely secular forum. Trying to abuse our intelligence by bannishing us from 'Kerr Katim' to religious forums elsewhere when you named the list 'The Gambia and related-issues mailing list'. What issue is more related to the lives of Gambians than Islaam? 

You wrote: < I will contact them on the matter, to get a categorical answer regarding what their policies are >. 

Wow! You might as well let them know that you already put the cart before the horse. And you expect us to trust you when you come back with a statement justifying your position. Yes, after St. Johns (with a library full of Islamic texts) have tolerated our archives (including the numerous Islamic postings) for more than half a year. Huh. 

Well Katim, you imagine waking up in good old Madison and opening your front door to discover 22 Gambia-Lers picketing your doorstep with all forms of placards with one message, not withstanding their differences. Yes, they are all chanting 'No to gagging of religious discourse'. Even the wise elder of the forum, Sidi Sanneh tried to pull you back into a democratic mode by reminding you that 'the ayes have it'; but the damage had been done already.

My big brother Katim, thank you for citing my posting on du'aa as the kind you will not tolerate in 'Kerr Katim'. Yes, I thought I was on Gambia-L but now I know it I intruded into Katim's territory. Like I told you before, I got your message loud and clear and it was no surprise. I can live with that. But please don't parade yourself as a democrat, otherwise you going to make a laughing stalk of yourself as you just did. Never have I seen you take a decision here without mustering more than one loneley supporter. 

May Allah help you and all of us in our noble endeavours.

Allahumma salli wasallim alaa Nabiyyina Muhammad. Wasalaam.
Modou Mbye