Gassama:

I believe we see Dr. Jah's motives a bit differently.  IMO, his piece, while
not mentioning the president directly, is intended to defend his (Jammeh)
lack of understanding of how he should act in a way which is consistent with
the part of the constitution designed to uphold secularity.  Here is a man
who not only put a mosque in the State House, but has also allowed a
fundamentalist Imam, in Fatty, to use this stage as his bully pulpit.  Not
only this, but by his constant reference to Allah, he also brings Islam into
the affairs of the state in an effort to pacify religious Gambian folk.  What
he has done in this process is to alienate the non-Muslim part of the Gambian
community and this is exactly what the brilliant originators of democratic
constitutions tried to prevent when they made secularity a staple in the
constitutions of most sovereign nations.


 The Constitution of The Gambia is the supreme law of the country even though
DR Jah believe that Muslims should not submit to this law.  When members of
parliament take an oath to uphold the supreme law of the land in the
constitution, they do so regardless of their religious background and this is
what should count.  Therefore, his point that a Muslim (Jammeh) cannot be
secular is a non sequitur.  On your point that states cannot reason per se,
that is a given.  But this is the reason why most sovereign states not only
have constitutions, but also have rules & laws in place that govern almost
every aspect of human life.  It is therefore safe to assume that this is a
moot point that should be entirely discounted.

Again, Gassama, if you read between the lines, you will see that Dr. Jah is
making the argument for Islam to be the given special preference, even in the
eyes of those who are elected to uphold our constitution.  His conclusion is
ample proof of this.  Again, I stipulate that there is no such thing as a
perfectly secular state but the concept entails that sovereign states should
practice it in the best way possible.

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