Kabir,

I would not have responded to you, not because I lack the ability to 
challenge your response point by point ( and i know you know this) but  for 
many other reasons, including urgings from some people on the L , but I see 
that you are continuing to try to put words in my mouth.

For starters, about a little over a month ago, you wrote me a series of 
personal emails discussing something of a very personal nature, and there are 
three or maybe even four people on this list who know about this.

 I wonder why you took it upon yourself to do that if , according to you, you 
have decifered from my writings on the L that I am a religious bigot,  a 
CNN/Newsweek traumatized dishonest person who got a one way ticket on Pan Am 
or something to that effect, while you are still living  in Norway. So much 
for contradictions.
 
Let me simplify this, so that things are not weaved about deliberately to 
create confusion as you are trying to do.

I did not call you anti Islamic because you spoke of Arab racism. That would 
be inconsistent with my natural inclination to speak out against racism and 
injustice, and my record here on the L should have made you think twice 
before making this accusation if you were thinking clearly. You keep 
insisting that I am defending Arab racism, and that does not even make any 
sense. Do you really believe this?

I wrote a response to your commentry regarding the beating of Black Africans 
in Libya, and stated that Moammar Khaddafi should bear some responsibility 
for that since he has been promoting himself as a champion of African 
liberation, and yet, here were his countrymen engaging in a display of 
ignorance and bogotry. That is what set you off on a rampage to try to 
discredit me, but there must have been the inclination there already  for 
some other reason i do not know.

You say you stand among those of us who hold Jammeh responsible for spreading 
ignorance, and yet, you are trying to tell us that Khaddafi should not be 
held responsible for the atrocities against Black people in the country of 
this champion of oppressed Africans? How can you possible justify that? 
Instead, you wanted people to believe that the responsibility lay with  Arab 
racism, period. How simplistic is that? What about racism towards Black 
people from other enhnic groups which i see you have added as an 
afterthought? I wonder why you just chose Arab racism as the culprit of this 
incident, and my comments as religious bias; if not for your natural 
inclination to lump Islam with Arabs, and any commentary from me as an excuse 
to launch your anti-islamic rhetoric.

Your response was that there are some of us whose religious bias has led us 
not to condemn Arab racism. Where that logic came from, especially in view of 
the very clear position against human rights violations of any sort I 
proclaim here every day, is beyond my imagination. 

My response to this baseless accusation was that indeed, there is Arab 
racism, and gave an example that even the Prophet of Allah (SAS) spent a 
great deal of his time speaking out against Arab racism, that Islam is 
incompatible with racism.His last famous speech at the Hajj is testimony to 
the fact that  racism has no place in Islam. 

I further alluded to the fact that if one is knowledgeable about islam, there 
is no way one could accuse anyone who professes to be a good muslim of 
failing to acknowledge racism or any form of injustice by Arabs or anyone 
else. 
I explained that care should be taken not to identify Islam with Arabs, 
because Muhammed was a Prophet sent to all mankind. I said all this, so that 
you can see how your allegation that religious bias prevents me from 
condemning Arab racism is unfounded. However, you can only understand this if 
you knew these very basic facts about Islam.

Therefore, you brought religion into this discussion by making the allegation 
that religious bias prevents me from acknowledging Arab racism, which is a 
ridiculous accusation and shows your lack of knowledge about Islam, and the 
reason for my saying this is pretty clear. The most basic tenet of  Islam is 
to enjoin truth, and if you understood this, as well as knew what some of the 
Prophet Muhammed's mission and challenges were, you would not have made the 
accusation, even though you profess to be a muslim.

 Consequently, it can only be concluded that you use every occasion, no 
matter what the topic, to attack islam and the fact that I do make every 
effort to share what i know about this religion with others, and this has 
been consistent with all your reactions whenever the topic arises.  Yes, I do 
share knowledge about islam, but when and where have i tried to force anyone 
to join me in my belief, or denounced anyone else's religion, such that you 
can take it upon yourself to label me a religious bigot? 

During the debate regarding the Ahmadiyyans and Imam Fatty, I pointed out 
that it is true that Ahmadiyya are considered a deviant sect according to the 
teachings of mainstream islam. That is not a declaration that they should be 
run out of town, nor does it mean that I condoned any scheme that was being 
attempted by Jammeh and his cohorts to run these people out of town.Show me 
where i made a statement to that effect.
Cautioning people about deviation from the teachings of Islam is something 
that is the responsibility of all muslims. It is too bad that Imam Fatty's 
intention was not just to warn muslims about the tenets of Islam, but why is 
it that I cannot point out this fact about deviance from the religion without 
supporting any agenda attached to it?
Only someone bent on creating the wrong impression will try to make this 
implication. What in heavens name would I or anyone gain by driving 
Ahmadiyyans out of Gambia or anywhere else for that matter. Islam teaches 
that a true test of faith is that one is able to be consistent in your belief 
even if everyone else around you believes in and practices  something else. 
Islamic nations around the World live with and benefit from the work of non 
muslims in their countries, and if the directive was to be intolerent and 
kick everybody out, there would be no non muslims in Arabia or other Islamic 
countries.Let us think like reasonable people, instead of trying to twist 
other people's words to support our allegations.

Muslims everywhere know that we should caution our fellow muslims about 
straying from the teachings of the Qur'an, and that it is our duty and 
responsibility to remind our fellow muslims about this. I merely pointed out 
what the mainstream belief was, and nowhere else did i add that i supported 
the scheme to run them out of Gambia. Your response to this was that the 
Ahmadiyya have done a lot of good work in our country, and my response was 
that so have the colonialists, but it did not prevent us from demanding our 
independence. No one asked our former colonialists to pack up and leave after 
independence just because we disagreed with thier policies and plans for us 
as a people. 

 I guess in your simplistic view, you took this to mean that i was declaring 
my support for the scheme to run Ahmadiyya out of Gambia, and that is a 
stupid preposition that can only be deduced by you because you are looking 
for something to support your unfounded allegations against me.
Let us be very clear about that, and not use it as an excuse to label me as 
an extremist.
I think it is time for alarmists such as yourself to put a stop to this 
outcry of “our country is a non-secular country”. This fact is known even to 
the elementary school children in our country.   We as Gambians all know that 
we are comprised of Muslims, Christians and even idol worshippers, and that 
each group has been free to practice what they want to practice as far back 
as we can remember, and that  our different religious persuasions have never 
been an issue with us, nor has it ever affected how we interact with each 
other, or live harmoniously with each other.

The topic of religion has only become an issue with the advent of the Jammeh 
Government, and what else has not become an issue and a problem with this 
oppressive regime? They have turned everything into a tool to help them to 
hold onto power, and those who do not recognize this for what it is are not 
thinking clearly, and can therefore sow seeds of disharmony by their 
insistence that there are potential problems where there aren’t any.
Our children exercising their rights to free expression has been turned into 
a problem. Journalists reporting the facts has become a problem. Ordinary 
people exercising their God given right to free expression of their opinion 
and political associations have become a problem. Civil servants having the 
ability to go to work unhassled has become a problem. Even taking for granted 
that one can safely go to bed at night and sleep soundly is not a certainty 
anymore in our country.Likewise, religion, like anything else, is being used 
as a tool of oppression and disharmony, and those who jump on this bandwagon 
are adding fuel to the fire.

They need to remember that all peace loving Gambians are working towards, and 
hoping and praying that when we get rid of this oppressive regime, we can go 
back to the place we were before in terms of our dealings with each other, 
and that there has never been, nor do we anticipate any disharmony due to 
religious differences.

We have never had a problem with non-secularism, so those who use every 
occasion to try to convince us that some of us who dare to promote a 
religious message are extremists who are out to turn our country into an 
Islamic state, and that they are the guardians to avert such a thing are 
reminiscent of the legend of Don Quixote de la Mancha, who was convinced that 
he was rescuing  fair maidens in distress from dragons, when all his wild and 
dangerous imagination led him to was the concoction of an imaginary danger 
which left him charging at windmills much to his own doom.

This cheap and  empty methodology to self promote at the expense of others, 
to give the impression to be everything to everyone must cease. i am of the 
belief that inherent in every human being is the knowledge of right and 
wrong, good and evil, and that we make the wrong choices in any given 
situation only because we fail to listen to this inner knowledge, that we do 
it because we are driven by self interest. It is a suppression of this inner 
conscience that enables dictators to murder people in cold blood so they can 
stay where they are, and it is the same that enables our fellow countrymen 
and women to collaborate  with the Jammeh regime in cold blooded murder 
because they want to remain in the positions they are in.  I believe that 
what we need in Gambia as well as everywhere else, are people whose actions 
are dirven by this inherent inner knowledge of what is right. if we have 
leaders like that, and if we the people are driven by that, then we will 
never have a need to fear that anyone will be a victim of any sort.We have 
always had that in Gambia, despite the fact that religious leaders have been 
doing their duty of cautioning people about what is acceptable in their 
respective religious and what is not, and i am not talking about religious 
leaders with truth mixed in with an agenda of their own, for those so 
inclined to twist my words to suit their own purposes. 

Jabou Joh

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