Here are some words of "wisdom" from Imam Fatty (from today's Observer) on AIDS, Sharia, pageants, etc.: Fankanta spreads HIV/Aids Alhaji Abdoulie Fatty, the imam of State House Mosque has single out Fankanta, a family planning programme, as a source of spreading the HIV/Aids pandemic in the country. He said the only way to combat the pandemic was to accept the Islamic way of teaching which preaches abstinence from sex before marriage and to always stick to one’s spouse. Imam Fatty said the use of condom could never prevent somebody from having children out of wedlock “as long as one does not abstain from illicit sex.” The imam who was speaking at an Islamic conference at Brikama Kabafita organised by the Daira Dawatul Haq last Wednesday also renewed his attack on immoral dress code and the use of condoms among many “other evil things” as he puts it. “Islam is the only religion that gives full and defined rights to women. Women are God’s own creation who serve as queens in Islam and men have an obligation to feed, care and cloth them,” he said. He also dilated on the status of women before Islam, citing Europe where according to him “women were treated as goods or object of charity. In Western Europe men used to sell women describing them as Satan’s servants. Where did the idea of women empowerment come from?. Islam accords women all their rights.” Immoral dress code Addressing the immoral dress code adopted by young girls, Imam Fatty said only the Islamic sharia could stop such act. He cited Nigeria where the sharia was not proposed by the government, “but by the population of that country”. He urged the youths to fight against “this act of decadence in the country.” Imam Fatty also attacked the issue of beauty pageants in the country, which he described as frequent and a “selection of ugly ladies in our beautiful Gambia”. He called on the relevant authority to condemn beauty pageants in the country “if we want to preserve our long God-given peace we are enjoying.” El Haiba Hydara, the imam of the airport mosque spoke on the importance for Muslims to live a virtuous life. Imam Hydara said parents were solely responsible for today’s social decadence noting that, “all these bad dresses are coming from homes.” He thanked the membership of Dawatul Haq for organising such a conference to create awareness within the Muslim community. Oustass Saloum Darboe also spoke on the importance of prayer in Islam. The conference was attended by Islamic scholars, Arabic students and a cross-section of the Muslim community. Oustass Sheriff Mohamed Lamin Janneh chaired the conference. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~