The executive members of the Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) and Majmouatu Rawdatul Majaalis (MRM) on Monday discuss two current issues of concern with the lawmakers from Busumbala and Jarra West Constituencies at the National Assembly of The Gambia in Banjul. They were Hon. Saikouba Jarjue and Hon. Kajali Fofana.
We were led to the assembly grounds by Baba Abubacarr Drammeh and Muhammad Sheriff Sanusi Nano Hydara as Presidents of the SIC and MRM respectively.
Our discussion with the two lawmakers centered on two main areas namely; the arrest of Alhajie kawsu Saidykhan the grand Imam of Jarra Kani-kunda mosque and total banning of congregational prayers in the mosques through-out the country in the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic.
On the issues of Imam Saidykhan’s arrest, Islamic scholars informed NAMs that the authorities concernnot to be a repeater of such action by the former regime against Islamic scholars in the country.
We described Imam Saidykhan’s arrestbefore the lawmakers as un-Islamic which authorities should not engage themselves with anymore.We also discussed with lawmakers for authorities to reconsider the complete banning of congregational prayers in the mosques.
We are calling on the Ministry of ReligiousAffairs for negotiation to see how best Muslims can perform both the 5-daily and Friday prayers in the mosques with limited number of worshippers.
We discussed with the NAMs that the Ministry of Religious Affairs need to engage Islamic scholars before the lockdown of the mosques like the way ministries of education, health and trade engage their stakeholders in the process.
It is important for us as Muslims to ask for the Almighty Allah’s forgiveness or seeking His blessing during our congregational prayers in mosques and we cannot do that if mosques are lockdownfrom worshippers.
We will continue to offer our prayers to those who contracted the disease globally to fully recoverandalso to continueseekingthe Almighty Allah’s blessing to tackle the pandemic worldwide.