Independent View

Brothers in faith Enemies for a purpose

Is it for the prestige or for the holy honour of leading Muslims in supplication to Allah? Banjul has earned the unenviable distinction of being the battleground for two Imams bent on having an influential mark on the imamate. Because both Imam Tafsir Gaye and Imam Cherno Kah have refused to budge even an inch over who should lead at the Banjul Mosque we have had to watch with utter disbelief and disdain the squabble that has been going on for a long time.

Now it is time to assess how big the gulf is between what has now polarized into two irreconcilable factions of the Banjul Central Mosque. Are the two men not taking advantage of the senility of the frostily old Imam Jobe? First of all God is above all dispute and so should be his religion, which is one of peace, compromise and the triumph of selflessness. Thus any of these two claimants should be judged according to how they are seen in Islam. Imam Cherno Kah is the first deputy Imam to Imam Jobe who came from Medina Serign Mass in Niumi while Tafsir Gaye a native of Banjul is the second deputy. Those in the Imam Gaye camp are contending that Imam Kah could not be a legitimate heir to the Imamate because he is not a native of Banjul.

To them he is simply a newcomer. But that is really not important when Muslims consider what is required to become an Imam. According to the Islamic doctrine, an Imam should first of all be a Muslim, well versed in the Quran and the prophet’s teachings. He should also be of good moral standing and demonstrate some leadership qualities and the right kind of wisdom to lead his followers. Questions about where he is from is not considered relevant. So it is not a question of taking sides but by and large Imam Kah as the first deputy Imam should be the heir-apparent. He has been acting in that capacity after Imam Jobe was retired by senility. Why should controversy surface here? Even if we are to go by the “foreigner” argument as far as Banjul is concerned everybody came.

Nobody can claim an entire ancestral lineage rooted in Banjul. Ipso Facto all Imams of Banjul were apart from Abdoulie Jobe “foreigners”. If Cherno Kah is no exception, what is the problem? Baba Lee the Kanifing Estate Imam is from Serrekunda. Sajar Fatty the Imam of Tallinding is from the CRD. Serrekunda Central’s Barham Jobe is from the North Bank. Division. The list goes no but their origin as far as Islam is concerned is not important. What is important is their steadfastness to the faith, their knowledge of it and their wisdom and capacity to lead fellow Muslims. All other considerations are bogus appendages of the faith. Another thing that is revolting to our sense of Islamic universality is discriminating against “foreigners”.

The xenophobic obsession of Gambians to “foreigners” is absurd, unhealthy and grossly unIslamic. A Muslim should be at home anywhere in the Islamic world, be they in Banjul, Beirut or Brunei. As the Banjul mosque question rips Muslim neighbours apart the Supreme Islamic Council, the Council of Elders and the Mosque Committee should speak out. An offhanded posture of disinterest would give cause for sensitive questions, regarding their commitment to truth and the cause of projecting Islam as the incandescent spirit for true compromise and blessing to our lives. We need not convince ourselves that it is too shameful in the Islamic sense for brothers in the faith to get stalked in an impasse that was always going to show the strength of bad faith between followers of a good and honourable religion like Islam.

The long running in-fighting could only give live ammunition to enemies of the faith to launch discrediting polemics that would not only put Muslims to disrepute but also render the faith in vogue. What we all understand to be Islam does not in any way sit in consonance with the kind of self-centred rivalry the Muslim community in Banjul has had to witness with a studied degree of disinterest and disdain. In this vein the last thing Muslims of The Gambia should do is to cast a weary eye or a deaf ear to the hullabaloo, which is showing our faith in very poor taste. We all should be fighting for the faith rather than against it. Obviously the problem in Banjul is demonstrating how ruinously we are holding the faith.

comment: banjul has a long history of  shameless discriminating of people classified as "non-citizens"similar to any village in the gambia.the struggle for muslim leadership in banjul has a long tradition among  different layers of the wollof caste groups and between the wollofs,assimilated wollofs and other language groups.in most cases these factional struggles for leadership have nothing to do with the religious welfare of its members but only the power and material previlages of the upper classes of these feudal and backword looking cligues.