Hi Everyone, I think the Imaam is performing his religious duty. Like the Pope and other religious leaders do all the time, there is no way in which he can condone the sort of family planning that is being advocated. The jury is still out as to whether or not the contraceptive experiment has succeeded. Girls as young as 11 or 12 are still getting pregnant in countries where contraceptives should have prevented this from happening, and plans are underway to make contraceptives freely available to this age-group in Britain, no questions asked. Contraceptives are also not without side effects. The 'pill scare' a couple of years ago, showed that even within the scientific community, there is disagreement ragarding the safety of the pill. I remember the pharmaceutical industry had to pay Canadian Professor Spitzer ( or something like that) to fly round the world assuring people that the pill was safe and that the conclusions of his research were misintepreted, by British and other scientists. So the pill is not risk-free. Whatever people decide to do with themselves, it is up to them, but religious religious leaders are right to preach what is in the Holy Books. Instead of making contraceptives freely available, there should be more education about sexual matters. Cheers. Momodou ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------