The
Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) strongly reaffirms its position against
the controversial word ‘secularism’ in the draft constitution. The council said
Gambia has never and should never be a secular state.
“It
should remain a non-secular state. This is what we inherited from the founding
fathers of the nation and this is what is deeply rooted in our social norms and
values,” Sheik Hama Jaiteh said yesterday during a press conference at the SIC
headquarters along the MDI road.
The
Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) last month released the first draft
constitution of the Republic of The Gambia. However, since the draft was
released, it has sparked a huge controversy, especially on social media over
secularism.
Meanwhile,
the Christian community on the other hand, is calling for the inclusion of the
word ‘secular’ in the preamble of the final draft of the country’s
constitution.
Sheik
Hama Jaiteh said: “Our non-secular status has provided us all the peaceful
co-existence, freedom of conscience, liberty to embrace any conviction and the
right to enjoy any religious, political, denominational affiliation without
being subjected to any restraint or persecution.”
“We
understand that there are many Gambians including the Gambia Christian Council
(GCC) who are trying to cunningly link their demand for secularism with the
unilateral declaration of The Gambia as an Islamic state in 2015 by the former
president,” he acknowledged.
However,
he said, that was very ‘unfortunate and quite misleading.’ “All these with
their full knowledge that the first attempt to secularise and deconsecrate our
lives, cultures and moral values started in 2001, fourteen years before that
unilateral declaration.” Mr. Jaiteh added: “It cannot escape any reasonable
mind that, the single word of secular in the constitution wouldn’t have
precluded the former president to make such a declaration or prevent any other
likeminded president to make such declaration in the future. We have no doubt
that the secularists would find it difficult to find a reasonable justification
for their demand.”
The
council, he stated, is aware that some attempts were made to compare The Gambia
with our neighbour, Senegal as an example of a secular country which
demonstrates peaceful coexistence among different religious groups.
“We
do not want to plunge into an endless debate about the difference between
Senegalese legal system and political reality with the Gambian one. However,
SIC believes that the most appropriate example should be a country that The
Gambia shares the same common law and a similar legal system with such as
Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, none of which has the word secular in
their constitutions. We see no reason why the Constitution of The Gambia should
bear the word?
The
SIC member added that noise is being made in some quarters that the
constitution should not accommodate Sharia law because they believe that The
Gambia is a secular state.
“We
assert that The Gambia is not the only country that recognises Sharia law in
its constitution. There are many countries around the world including common
law countries that adopt Sharia as part of their laws; like Kenya, Ethiopia,
Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria, among others.”
Changing
the Cadi Court to Sharia Court, he said, is just a correction of a very long
standing legal abnormality that had existed more than hundred years (from
Muslim Court to Muhammedan Court, Cadi Court and now to Sharia Court); in the
same way that current High Court of The Gambia was changed with Supreme Court
as the superior court some decades ago.
