QGroup Chief Executive Officer Muhammed Jah, in his remarks at a ceremony held at GSIC ground, committed himself to annually support the Council. He said the initiative was inspired by his late father, Imam Mass Jah, who used to be an adviser to the Council.
He said he had seen many of his father's students who have now taken over at the Council and are doing well in bridging peace.
QGroup and GSIC always collaborate on various divine and support activities ranging from the Council’s Ndogu programme to its National Quranic Competition that started three years ago, he said, adding that they now have close to 400 participants countrywide.
"Together with the Council, we organised the competition regionally with judges accompanied by QTV to expose our young kids to the Quran,” he explained. “From that regional competition, we selected the best and brought them to QCity for the final. Thank God we held the final successfully. We collaborated with the Council because Gambian students are invited all over the world to join competitions but there was no structured way of selecting the students who represent us."
They had already seen the results of the best students representing the country, he said, adding that a few months ago, there was an International Quranic Competition in which The Gambia took first.
"Supreme Islamic Council was working with us tirelessly without asking for a penny,” he expatiated. “I thought they had a big budget but when I asked Alhagie Ousman Jah, he informed me they had not and most of the expenses came from their own individual resources with some little help. We decided that from this year, we will annually subvent them with one million dalasis. We are doing this because we think it is our duty as Muslims to support the organisation because they do a lot of work countrywide."
The QGroup boss reiterated that there are a lot of religious, tribal, family and other issues in the country that the council works day in day out to sort out.
Thus, he called on Gambians to support the Council, saying that if the country’s apex Islamic body is supported with the right budget, “we will see bigger results”. He clarified further that the support was from QGroup and not something the council asked for.
Alhagie Ousman Jah, head of QGroup Religious Affairs, said the gesture was part of their commitment to fulfilling the promise made by their CEO Mr Jah.
"We have invited the media but not to show up; instead it is to serve as a motivation to others to also support,” he remarked, saying: “We have seen Islamic leaders who are working immensely for the religion and we do not see anybody who takes the responsibility of providing them with resources they can use to take care of their families. They are not paid salaries and not subvented; rather they finance their own activities."
He said Mr Jah's intention is to see GSIC as the best organization in the world, noting that the Imams are contributing a lot to preaching peace through their sermons and as well contributing to nation-building.
GSIC President Alhagie Essa Foday Darboe, in receiving the gesture, expressed delight and gratitude to QGroup. He branded CEO Jah as a teacher that every Gambian should learn from. He said Jah's father was an Imam and a teacher, whose teachings have reflected in his son.
"His father was part of the leaders that formed the Council and was among the executive members,” he recounted. “We thank him and his entire family. We urge Gambians to emulate Mr Jah because he is the first person to support mosques with Iftar. He is also supporting Islamic schools as well as the first to introduce the National Quranic Competition."
Imam Darboe stated that supporting Mr Jah is like supporting religion hence calls on Imams to pray for him. He said that almost all Imams have QCell sims, since they know the support is coming back to them. QGroup, he said, is their company and urged anyone without a sim to get one.
Among other speakers were Alhagie Ebrima Jarjue, head of the Hajj Committee and GSIC deputy President.
