Hello Sister Jabou,

Pardon my late response. I went down under a bout of flu and was rendered useless for the better part of the past three days. I am just now able to bend my head over my keyboard without having the feeling that some mass was going to pulp out of my head, and of course sneezing so hard that I could have scared a corpse to its feet!

You wrote:

"Amadou,

"l think we can agree that l am not here to defend Imam Fatty's views on FGM,
women's rights or anything else, other than his warnings regarding the
Ahmadiyya movement. l did address the issue regarding colonialism. As l
stated, the excellence we are seeking in other areas of our life also extends
to religion for some of us, and speaking up against the innovation of the
Ahmadiyyas  to preserve purity in worship, which is the foundation of islam,
is incumbent upon all muslims.

Jabou"

Well Imam Fatty was just an example of my worse nightmare and the kind of attitude that a certain religious posture can breed: contempt and disregard for others, which in itself is quite un-Islamic but can I take it that since you did not try to defend your assertion that:

".....If this is the case, then let us cease to make any  criticisms of colonialism, nor should we have
fought for independence from the same since our colonizers built schools and
hospitals" 

you agree with me that it was both invalid and futile to try to equate the Ahmadiyyas to the colonialist?

For the Ahmadiyya have never stolen and are not stealing from the Gambian people as the colonialist did.

The Ahmadiyya have not demonstrated any disrespect for any other faiths or for the people as a whole, as the colonialist did.  

The Ahmadiyya have facilitated the provision of healthcare and education to many Gambians and continue to do so to the delight of many whose fate would otherwise have been left to the mercy of inadequate and poor state of these services that own government has to offer.

Just the other day Omar Njie told us how he attended their school, went to their meetings, but mainly for the free cola! He managed to get himself some education, a free cola now and then, and then went on to become an invaluable resource both to his country and to his own family, but continued to believe what he wants to believe! I think that's quite a good bargain, don't you?

I think that every student that went through one of the Ahmadiyya schools and then went on to contribute towards the development of the country, one way or another, deserved the opportunity! 

As far as the Ahmadiyya preach and practice their religion peacefully, I think they have all rights to operate in the country without being under constant seige. 

The constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, has provided for the freedom worship. Every Gambian deserves the same respect that we desire for own self and our own faith. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. One day the chickens might just come home to roost!

I think that as we were talking here about widening the democratic space sometime ago, we should also be talking about "maintaining" the religious space! I say "maintain" because Gambians have always been tolerant of other faith other than their own. This in turn have engendered religious harmony and peaceful co-existence. In the Gambia faiths cut right across ethnic backgrounds and even across family lines. Most Gambians feel that people should be free to worship whatever way they choose as far as they do not threaten the security of others by sowing seeds of discord.

How many times have Nigerian intitutions of higher been closed down because of riots between Muslims and Christians and how many times has it not been discovered that there was a political hand behind it all? 

There is too much emotion attached to religion and religious issues and which is prone to abuse by religious opportunists and unscrupulous politicians. I think we should spend our energies on much more important and meaningful issues than constant religious bickering. We should be careful what we ask for, for it may be exactly what we get!

We should be grateful that ours are not sects of the kind that preach amargedeon and mass suicide. Nor ones that sermon the masses out of their last Dalasi, but rather ones that build schools and hospitals and do not even require that you subscribe to their belief in order to be illegible to join their institutions. 

Many young people have gone through these schools and gone on to gain further educational achievements without having compromised their belief in the Holy Quran and Islam. The same is true of probably thousands who have gone through Christian Mission Schools. We have only something to gain and nothing to loose!

Regards.

A. Kabir Njie.