By Lamin Njie
The Gambia Christian Council Tuesday stuck the knife into the Constitutional Review Commission saying the body might have been manipulated into leaving out the word ‘secular’ in the new draft constitution.
The CRC last month released the new draft constitution after 18 months of consultations but one issue that has proved emotive is the issue of whether The Gambia is a secular nation.
Gambian Christians through the Gambia Christian Council have issued a public reaction for the first time saying they are concerned that the word ‘secular’ did not make it to the new draft constitution.
“The GCC is concerned that the CRC may have been unduly influenced into omitting the word ‘secular’ in the proposed draft following the many audio clips that were circulated and purporting to come from an Islamic scholar who put up a forceful argument against including the word ‘secular’ in the new constitution which he argued was un-Islamic with insinuations that there were sinister groups with anti-religious agendas trying to influence members of the Constitutional Review Commission to include the word ‘secular’ to undermine Muslims,” top GCC official Bishop Gabriel Mendy said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Constitutional Review Commission is currently on a nationwide tour to engage Gambians on the new draft constitution before it would be finalised for a referendum.
The GCC is expected to come into contact with the commission as part of the consultations and the officials said they will bring to the attention of the commission their frustrations and concerns.
“The GCC is aware that there are some people who are attributing the word ‘secular’ to mean irreligious, rejection and exclusion of religious considerations in everything pertaining to the state including not having public religious prayers and/or religious symbols. This is certainly not what the GCC is advocating for,” Bishop Mendy said.
