UDP spokesman Almamy Taal has said there was no mistake in inviting the leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at to lead Muslims in prayers at UDP’s congress last month.
Fellow UDP member Momodou Sabally claimed the MC made an error in asking Baba Trawally to pray at the event ‘who he later tried to correct’. Sabally also said it was wrong to ask an Ahmadi to pray on behalf of mainstream Muslims.
Taal spoke on the claims on Tuesday where he insisted there was no error or mistake, totally contradicting Sabally’s claims.
Taal said: “It was not an error. The Ahmadis are Gambians, they’re Muslims, they call themselves Muslims. We are not having a religious gathering at the congress. Congress happens every two years and we asked for the prayers and blessings of the event. There was no congregational prayer.
“We asked for Christian prayers, we asked for Muslim prayers, we asked for all prayers so that our program, our activity happens in peace. Anybody suggesting that it was an error or a mistak obviously is not aware of what goes into…
“They were invited like all religious denominations and quite frankly we don’t know which prayer is going to be answered and we don’t presume to speak between faiths. We are a political party and we believe we are the majority political party.
“Therefore every Gambian of every religious denomination is entitled to offer prayers to the United Democratic Party. I hope that we will be more tolerant others who are not prophesing our own version of Islam and make sure that when we deal with issues of faith we are very measured and we stop trying to be intolerant or to become bigoted one way or the other.”
Moments after Taal’s comments, Momodou Sabally took to Facebook to respond to his UDP compatriot.
“This kind of statement is both shameful and unfortunate. I Momodou Sabally hereby completely dissociate myself from everything that Almame Taal said in this video,” Sabally said.
