The Muslim Jamaat of the Sierra Leonean community in The Gambia on Sunday held its 12th Annual Islamic Conference at the Paradise Suites Hotel on the theme “Youth and the media: opportunities and challenges”.
The chief guest speaker of the occasion, Dr Omar Jah, deputy vice chancellor of the UTG, said some people think the media is so technical that it has nothing to do with Islam.
According to him, as a Muslim one should not believe that the human ideas are divine ideas.
He added that Allah says to us, “Do you think I create you in vain and that you will not return back to me saying most of the people in this world don’t know their purpose of being here”.
He also said the prophet (SAW) said no man will enter ‘yowmal kiama’ without being asked about his youthfulness, adding that sitting at the ghettos smoking wouldn’t help.
He also said that humankind’s last days on earth will be very difficult because there will be no shade, adding that as a youth if a beautiful woman come to your house asking for tea and when you ask her why she is coming there asking for tea, you are effecting change.
Dr Jah also stated that youth in the society must be well equipped and well guided, which according to him, is the responsibility of a state, family and society, saying youths are the soft-hand power of civilization, which is based on Islam, adding: “Our problem as Muslims is we read the work of others but we don’t read books written by Islamic scholars.”
He said there are books such as the lifespan of a state and the lifespan of civilization, which a Muslim can read.
“Once you have youth that have a proper mindset and are well guided, then you have a secure civilization,” he noted, saying the media will come to hijack the mindset of young people as it informs and misinforms.
A well informed society is a powerful society, he says. “The seeds of knowledge are a substance which they call intellect, heart, soul and speed it is one thing but a different thing having different names due to their accidental role which the media knows and will come to hijack.”
He also said the media is a very powerful tool to inform or misinform, particularly Western media which is not inline with Islam.
He said that nowadays people are talking about Pan-Africanism when they are walking French, speaking French and behaving French, saying a Muslim youth should walk Islamic, speak Islamic and behave Islamic.
