President Jammeh boosts SIC

In yet another demonstration of benovelence, Professor Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, president of The Republic of The Gmbia, has offered to donate to The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) a 25 Seater bus, in a bid to ease constraints of mobility at the council.

The Gambian leader also donated a sum of D150,000, meant to settle some outstanding debt of the Councl. Two sets of computers, and an amount of D49,000 for operational use of the Council were also donate by the president.

In addition, the Gambian leader promised to complete outstanding construction works at the council’s headquarters. All these took place, yesterday, at State House, where Professor Jammeh received the top brass of the Supreme Islamic Council.

Headed by Alhagie Momodou Lamin Touray, president of the Council, the visit was meant to highlight their constraints to the Gambian leader, and to formally introduce the new executives to the head of state. Speaking at the meeting, Professor Jammeh applauded the Council for their hardwork and urged them to keep up the momentum, imploring on Muslims to be good and to keep the faith of Allah.

He called on the Muslim Ummah to distance itself from the practice of unislamic activities, noting that “a Muslim should fear God in whatever they are doing. Let us be good to each other.”

Professor Jammeh also observed that these days prices of goods during the feast of Christmas go down, but that during the feasts of Koriteh or Tobaski, prices of goods skyrocket. He said: “If you go out to the market today, almost all business people are Muslims, probably, one out of them is not. During these two feasts, however, majority of them are doing bad things to get money any how.”

The Gambian leader stressed that this should not be the habit of a good muslim. And he added: “one of the worst things a Muslim will do is to know that something is bad and continue doing it. On the constraints highlighted, the president informed the SIC executives that his government, in the near future, will consider creating salaries for Imams, but he stressed the need for the council to first set up certain criteria for assumption of Imamship.

He revealed that his government would look into the possibility of providing subvention to the Islamic Council, extending the same gesture to the Christian Council. On the issue of salary  for staff, he urged the Supreme Islamic Council to identify key staff members who would be paid by government.

While making clearly his government’s position of non-tolerance of unislamic activities, the Gambian leader emphasised the need for the council to identify capable people to be talking on religious matters in the national media.

Expressing his resolve to support the Council, Professor Jammeh also tasked them to maintain the image of the Ummah in the country. Ismaila Sambou, the secretary of state for Local Governments, Lands and Religious Affairs, hailed President Jammeh for his manifestation of commitment to the cause of the Islamic religion.

Speaking earlier, Alhagie Momodou Lamin Touray, president of The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council, commended President Jammeh for his continuous support to the Council. He acknowledged the professor’s unwaivering support to his Council, citing the allocation of a piece of land for their headquarters, and the donation of 1000 bags of cement during the laying of the foundation stone of the Council’s headquarters, among several other gestures of his they had benefited.

Prior to the president’s assistance, the SIC boss highlighted numerous constraints currently hindering the administrative operations of the Council. Key among them included the financial crisis, which they had inherited from the former executives;  telephone bill owed to GAMTEL;  mobility; and the general lack of resources.

With this magnanimous gesture from the Gambian leader, the SIC boss noted with satisfaction the fact that the donation would greatly resolve some of their major constraints.

He told the president that among their priorities were plans for the training of Imams and other scholars, and to settle completely Imamship crises that continue to hunt many of the mosques in the country. having already set a committe, the SIC, according to its president, is keenly working towards making it possible for Gambia to be observing the holy feats as the same time as Muslims in other part of the world, like Saudi Arabia; an issue supported by President Jammeh himself.

While commending the Gambian leader for his generosity to Muslims, the Supreme Islamic Council boss expressed their resolve to contribute in national development in their own way. Imam Sheikh Bajan, first vice president of the Supreme Islamic Council, expressed similar sentiments.