Gambia's president declares Islamic statehood

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88m3

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Gambia's president declares Islamic statehood
Leader Yahya Jammeh says his nation must reflect its Muslim majority and needs to break away from its colonial past.
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12 Dec 2015 18:17 GMT | Islam, Gambia, Religion, Politics, Africa

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    The head of the country's Islamic body would not say if he endorsed the declaration.

    "We haven't met yet to discuss over the presidential announcement," said Supreme Islamic Council chairman Imam Momodou Lamin Touray.

    Hamat Bah, of the opposition National Reconciliation Party, criticised the decision. "There is a constitutional clause that says that Gambia is a secular state," he said. "You cannot make such a declaration without going through a referendum."

    Jammeh's government has been regularly criticised by Britain and other Western powers for human rights abuses. Jammeh has ruled Gambia since seizing power in 1994.

    Jeffrey Smith, a senior advocacy officer at the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that Jammeh's "unilateral" decision to call Gambia an Islamic republic is part of a "larger pattern of capriciousness" and has ulterior political motives.

    "Gambia is not a country of laws but is rather ruled by the whims of Yahya Jammeh," Smith said.

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    "Second, Jammeh has burned all bridges with his former donors in the West due to his deplorable human rights track record and the rampant corruption that he has participated in.

    "As such, he is desperately attempting to foster a closer and more lucrative relationship with the Arab world. By couching his decision in terms of 'fighting colonialism', we can see that he is trying to cozy up with other parts of the world that harbour anti-West sentiments," he said.

    Jammeh's announcement came after Gambia said on Wednesday it would take in Rohingya refugees as part of its "sacred duty" to alleviate the suffering of fellow Muslims fleeing Southeast Asia to escape oppression.

    The government of the West African nation appealed to countries of the region to send Rohingya refugees to its shores, where it said it would set them up in refugee camps.

    "The government of Gambia notes with grave concern the inhumane condition of the Rohingya people of Myanmar - especially those referred to as 'boat people' - currently drifting in the seas off the coast of Malaysia and Indonesia," it said in a statement.

    "As human beings - more so fellow Muslims - it is a sacred duty to help alleviate the untold hardships and sufferings fellow human beings are confronted with."

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    Gambia leader returns after 'coup attempt'


    With reporting by Ryan Rifai in Doha

  • Gambia's president declares Islamic statehood
nothing says freedom like fatigues and berets
 
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Micky Mikey

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pledging allegiance to their Arab slave masters. How ironic that he denounces western colonialism yet embraces a religion that was used to justify the enslavement of his ancestors by Arab "imperialists" . Educated and rational thinking people need to severely take control in some of these countries in Africa. Much of their leaders are just plain dumb and set their own country back hundreds of years with corruption, violence, and mismanagement. I believe the greatest threat to Africa isn't the west, China, or the Arabs it is the total incompetency of their leaders. And if it were left up to me I'd say off with all their heads.
 
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TheReckoning said:
pledging allegiance to their Arab slave masters. How ironic that he denounces western colonialism yet embraces a religion that was used to justify the enslavement of his ancestors by Arab "imperialists" . Educated and rational thinking people need to severely take control in some of these countries in Africa. Much of their leaders are just plain dumb and set their own country back hundreds of years with corruption, violence, and mismanagement. I believe the greatest threat to Africa isn't the west, China, or the Arabs it is the total incompetency of their leaders. And if it were left up to me I'd say off with all their heads.
Click to expand...

You idiot, do you even know anything about Islam in western Africa? Have you ever met a west African Muslim before? There was no Arab conquerors involved in converting the west Africans to Islam. There was never any Arabic colonies also. The reason that Islam spread in West Africa is that African kings and the rulings class accepted Islam by being in constant contact with Muslim merchant-scholars in turn the masses in the region accepted Islam.

1) Muslim merchant-scholars from north Africa assisted the African Kings in trade and commerce (this is nothing new, this happened all over the world from China to Indonesia)

2) Many of these merchants were also spreading the word of Islam, The African Kings either for economical, political or spiritual reasons accepted Islam

3) The ruling class of the African society accepted Islam, then after this the rest of society.

This is the same reason that Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, not because of Arab conquest. If you look at all of the west African nations that practice Islam, there is no influence of Arabic in there language. Arabs controlled Spain for hundreds of years, but you can see the Arabic influence in there language and culture. Do some research and get your facts right.

Islam in Gambia | History

FSI | SPICE - The Spread of Islam in West Africa: Containment, Mixing, and Reform from the Eighth to the Twentieth Century
 
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