Sister Jabou and Mr. Joof,

Truth can be apprehended in from a manifold of perspectives and their 
is no single absolute authority to articulate its propositions.  The 
acceptance of any truth in any  civil society like the Gambia depends 
to a large degree to the established fabric of the Gambian political 
constitution ...and NOT on any religious dogma nor any other political 
perspectives such as those from a socialist party like PDOIS.  The 
Gambia government has no business in promoting moral values and that is 
what Pres. Jammeh has been trying to articulate.  

I have observed that both of you based your arguments on individual 
freedoms and rights to be “critical” etc etc. in a sense both of you 
somewhat made the case for freedom and rights as an absolute.  I will 
defer somehow.  Freedom is fully realized when we are held responsible 
for our actions, and that includes respect for each other as moral 
actions.  Now tell has Imam Fatty acted responsibly with these 
following comments:

1.    "Allah will judge between you and the students who wear the 
veil and they will be victorious while you will be cursed in hell".
2.     The only true religion recognized in the sight of Allah is 
Islam. All prophets of Allah preached no religion other than Islam. Mr. 
President, you have made the Kafirs (disbelievers) triumph over the 
Muslims. You have made Muslims the laughing stock of the disbelievers.
3.    Mr. President, you have made the Kafirs (disbelievers) joyous 
and the Muslims to mourn. You have made Christianity superior over 
Islam. And you have made Muslims cry and Christians laugh."


I guess not.  Imam Fatty has mistaken his individual impulse and 
desires for his individual rights and freedom of expression and thus 
trangresses the boundaries of the church according to the traditions of 
liberal democracy.  He tries to collectivize public reason in order to 
undermine Jammeh’s authority and the very coherence of secular 
tradition.  The authority of the state as symbolized by the presidency 
holds a civil society together and NOT the abstract claims of 
individual human rights.  That authority and the obedience to liberal 
democratic traditions are the root of political order.  The prime 
virtue of all good citizens including Imam Fatty is the right to 
obedience of these principles of a secular constitutional state.  
Otherwise a society “crumbles to dust and power of individuality” as 
Edmund Burke once stated.  The “human rights/freedoms” peddled by most 
Gambian opposition groups and closet subversives are nothing but 
childish license to disobedience of authority and a precursor to most 
African civil wars. Imam Fatty is fooling nobody but himself, and Pres. 
Jammeh shall take note.  

Ebou

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