Juwara Goes Blisters Again! Says Jammeh Encouraging Religious Intolerance The Independent (Banjul) NEWS August 4, 2003 Posted to the web August 4, 2003 By Alieu Darboe Banjul In a blistering reaction to President Jammeh's statement disallowing the veil in schools, the National Democratic Action Movement's leading light Lamin Waa Juwara has asserted that The Gambia has caught on with the "virus and contradictions that have torn countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Congo and Liberia apart". In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the former Niamina Dankunku parliamentarian charged that President Jammeh has no vision to resolve the controversy revolving around the veil but has merely created fresh religious contradictions that may just fan the flames of religious bigotry. Juwara accused President Jammeh of introducing tribalism and nepotism in the Gambian body politic and asked the Gambian people to close ranks and save their country from falling apart, since theirs had always been tolerance and peaceful co-existence. "Jammeh can blame none but himself for the spate of religious fundamentalism that he has been using hypocritically for his own political ends" he charged. Juwara explained that since time immemorial Gambian Christians and Muslims have co-existed without incident of bad blood aggravating into a national crisis. He claimed that the pre and postcolonial experience had never brought an occasion when the political leaders had used religion as a political weapon for their own selfish ends. He said all that were to change when Jammeh assumed power and appointed people on the basis of their loyalty to him. Juwara also charged that Jammeh's appointees to the Supreme Islamic Council instead of propagating Islam used the religion to propagate Jammeh. "Jammeh built a mosque at State House for a political purpose. He and his so-called religious leaders toyed with the idea of introducing Sharia in the Gambia a country observing secular law. They also attacked the Ahmadiyya Jamaat in The Gambia, a situation, which is very regrettable. Jammeh has been fighting against the peaceful, religious co-existence of the Gambia. The evil issue was a directive from his office and it has created a lot of bad blood between the two major religious groups in the Gambia and instead of him admitting and taking full responsibility for the dispute, he gave a flimsy excuse and tried to apportion blame on so-called fundamentalists who as everybody know was working under his direction" he postulated. "I am calling on the Gambian Muslims and Christians to tolerate each other, and disown and discredit Jammeh's divisive politics, which if it unchecked may destroy the Gambia. The only person that is using religion divisively is Yahya Jammeh. He has created that very problem in Banjul, which led to the defeat of his party by an independent candidate" he claimed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~