SINS OF GAMBIAN IMAMS!!!
The Sins of Gambia's Imams, Priests and Other Religious Leaders-The Watchman
In these United States, the preaching of a pastor or two could determine who the next leader of the free world will be. Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have been dogged by controversial statements voiced by their high profile religious backers, the Revs. Jeremiah Wright and John Hagee respectively. While the controversial aspect of their teachings are open to debate, there is no denying that in The Gambia, religious leaders are guilty of an utter dereliction of duty and conscience that make the rants and raves of American church leaders tame in comparison.
Yahya Jammeh has been emboldened by the embarrassing silence of imams, priests and reverends, custodians of moral and religious guardianship, and the result has been the emergence of a peripatetic god complex on his part. Before readers jump to a conclusion and issue a fatwa for The Watchman's head similar to Salman Rushdie's plight in 1989, I ask all to lend me some ears.
For starters, let's begin with equal opportunity secularism by examining the role of 2 of the world's major religions that affect The Gambia specifically, Christianity and Islam. One of the biggest blights of Christianity was the Spanish inquisition, the name given to a fundamentalist tribunal established in 1478 by King Ferdinand and his queen Isabella to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms. This inquisition became particularly notorious for acting as an instrument of repression against the significant Spanish Jewish, and the Muslim populations after the last battles of the Reconquista, and for essentially dehumanizing and enslaving the native populations of North and South America as the new international power extended itself to the new world's continents.
Fast forward history and the sad events of 9/11 2001, a crime committed by Muslim terrorist Osama bin Laden and one sees an episode that not only tarnished the name of Islam but resulted in a great loss of life as Afghanistan was attacked and occupied by Western powers, Iraq was assaulted in the ensuing paranoia against the Muslim world and the exponential occurrences of terrorism have effectively rendered planet Earth a much different and grimmer habitat.
These shameful epochs of religious history reflect a powerful fact: that belief systems and those who serve as their figure heads play a significant role in the course of nations in times of peace and most crucially in times of war or national crisis. Hence the questions: why is it that religious leaders in The Gambia who were accustomed to the relative tranquil of the Jawara years maintained silence during 14 years of immoral and ignoble misrule by the Jammeh chain gang? Was any explicit condemnation and pressure brought to bear against The Gambia's wayward "authorities" when 14 students were murdered in cold blood in 2001? How come we never hear the moral weight of the mosque or ministry in agitating for the release of political prisoners detained without due process? Have the Catholic church, Anglicans, Muslim brotherhoods and sects voiced concern over the senseless annihilation of fellow African citizens of Ghana? Which priest or sheriff is making pronounced edicts in aid of Fatou Jaw Manneh?
The dearth of significant action on the part of The Gambia's religious authorities betrays a lack of confidence on their part in believing that they can be assertive enough to positively amend Yahya Jammeh's disorderly conduct but they are mistaken. The most significant political breakthroughs of the last century were engineered by a coalition of religious and civic groups who proved spectacularly successful in dismantling tyrannical politico-socio economic especially during the height of the Cold War.
Take Poland for example. During the cold war, the Solidarity Movement, a coalition of labor unions and the highly influential Catholic church led by Lech Walesa, organized a series of boycotts, sit ins and demonstrations that eventually led to the fall of the Communist Soviet puppet junta in 1989. It should be noted that this religious resistance to the soulless, spiritless and godless system called Communism produced one of the most significant religious and political figures of our time, Pope John Paul II. His visits to Poland gave moral sustenance not only to the foes of Soviet rule but encouraged Nicaraguans to resist oppressive Sandinista governance, and even Mikhail Gorbachev the last head of the USSR stated that without the meddling of Pope, the Soviet Republics might have still been intact. Further, to illustrate an action on John Paul II's deed s that affect us Africans directly, he supported the Jubilee 2000 initiative by Bono of U2 to alleviate debts of poor nations.
Closer to home, the Mourides of Senegal guided by their powerful leader, the caliph, exemplify beneficial involvement in affairs of the state. Like his predecessors, the grand caliph is politically cautious. Per the New York Times, his father, Sheik Bamba, who is remembered for opposing colonial rule, established a pattern of collaboration with the French after returning from exile. The French, benefiting from the stability that the Mourides provided, allowed them to thrive. After independence, Senegal's presidents also relied on the Mourides for political backing and gave them great autonomy in return. In 2000, the day after his election, President Abdoulaye Wade, himself a Mouride, paid a high-profile visit to Touba to receive the grand caliph's blessing. Mr. Wade, who said in an interview that the grand ca liph had never asked him for any favors, comes here every few months.
In few places in West Africa is Islam so well organized and politically powerful as in Senegal, a country at the same time considered the region's most open and Western-oriented. There are four Sufi Muslim brotherhoods in Senegal, each led by a cleric called a grand marabout. It is through the marabouts that the faithful -- most of Senegal's 10 million people -- practice this mystical form of Islam. The brotherhoods have had friendly relations with the state and, as essentially moderate groups, have helped provide it with an unusual degree of political stability.
''It is only in Senegal that brotherhoods dominate to such a degree, where they are inseparable from Islam,'' said Khadim Mbacke, a Mouride who is a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Dakar. Perhaps more than other Muslims in Africa, Mr. Mbacke said, the brotherhoods have adapted Islam to African culture. Brotherhood members follow a strong leader, in keeping with African tradition, and leadership is passed down through sons. Among the Mourides, because many of their early leaders were peanut farmers or traders, those practices became essential to their way of life.
Now the key, word associated with the Mourides is stability. By virtue of their civic involvement and the credibility and power of their caliph, an influence successfully built over many decades, the Mourides, more so than Senegal's legislature, the Assembly Nationale and its supreme court, the judicial arm, have acted as a watchful check on the executive president. To put it more succinctly, Senegal's religious leaders have put their considerable cachet to good use instead of manipulating it for disastrous ends. They are in a partnership of almost equality with the state, a fact not lost on proud Mourides who send remittances to Touba to keep the prestige of their order intact. Some might argue that the Casamance region disproves this fact but that conflict has complex ethnic dimensions to it and with the exception of rogue factions, the violence has lessened somewhat and is not a national conflagration the likes of Biafra or Somalia.
Hark back to The Gambia and one finds the contrary. The so-called religious leaders kowtow to Yahya Jammeh's foolish whims and initiatives, scurrying to state house like dutiful inferior subjects every time he wants to use them as mere photo op props. The Christian leaders don't say much to the unruly head of state as long as their diocese maintains its membership and ecclesiastic aims. The Muslim elders shy away from vocal opposition to executive misconduct for fear of the various many punitive actions the Butcher of Banjul might mete out to them because essentially in the same vein that he capriciously dismisses alkalos, intelligence apparatus chiefs, ministers and even his wives, Gambia's idiot of state can ostracize and stigmatize them within the religious comm unity. Yahya Jammeh struts around in white to signify his "purity" and cannot seem to let go of his prayer beads. In secret, it wouldn't be a surprise if he fancies himself the leader of all Muslims in The Gambia.
It is clear that so far, Gambia's homegrown media and opposition, its exile anti-Jammeh coalitions and influential citizens have failed to introduce political changes by dint of pressure tactics on the disgraceful Jammeh administration. With their moral authority, widely held respect, and immense devotional following, Gambia's religious leaders can pick up where the rest have lapsed in making sure some sanity returns to the socio-economic confluence that is our state of affairs. They can do so effectively only they call on their faith to give them courage to lead us from this cruel wilderness of national despair. If they don't think so maybe they'll be inspired after making a phone to that great dismantler of an evil system, B ishop Desmond Tutu. All Gambians should contribute to make this possible.
Author can be reached at gambiaswatchman@gmail.com
