Speaking at the SDKJ International Conference Centre, PS Sanyang added that this might increase; out of the 38 countries, they have 81 participants. He stated that among the participants, they have nine ministers while the highest number of participants will come from Mauritania as confirmed so far.
He said the meeting is fully funded by the Muslim World League and the Gambia government will provide vehicles and the services of security personnel and officers.
“The conference involved ministers responsible for Religious Affairs in all the African countries and Muslim Ulamas. The theme of the meeting is to promote peace, harmony, unity and diversity among religious leaders. Recently, there have been lots of misconceptions and non-tolerance of each other’s view, resulting in a lot of chaos and fighting among people within African countries.”
He said that his ministry, on behalf of the government is collaborating with the Muslim World League in organising the meeting to clear some of those misconceptions and enable people to be tolerant by accepting each other’s opinions.
Binta Jammeh Sidibeh, the chairman of the Organising Committee, also explained that this would be the first of its kind in the country’s history and that The Gambia is lucky to be chosen. She added that it is no mistake to choose the Gambia because of its stance on religious tolerance and respect for each other.
“We have been working very hard for the past two and half months because it’s a pride to The Gambia and can boost our tourism sector. We want to diversify our tourism sector and not only have the beach, sun and the sea but we want to host international conferences which can contribute to our GDP,” she said.
She continued that all sub-committees are doing great to make things done by improving security, accommodation, transportation and protocols.
