By Lamin Njie
Two top Gambian imams last week went head to head as the fight for leadership of the country’s apex Islamic body continued.
Supreme Islamic Council second vice president Ibrahim Jarjue clashed with Rawdatul Majalis’s Abubacarr Jabbi on Perspective, a weekly GRTS show, in a session peppered by accusations and counter-accusations.
The debate first started to get heated when Supreme Islamic Council’s Jarjue claimed Rawdatul Majalis was a one-tribe Islamic group.
“Because we are interested in peace is why I am sharing a stage with Rawdatul Majalis. I will not have been here. We have nothing against them but all we hear from them is insults.
“If you go to any Majalis, you will find a Fula, a Jola, a Mandinka, a Serahule, a Serere but for Rawdatul Majalis, all the scholars are Mandinkas and Gambia is not a country of just Mandinkas,” Jarjue said.
He continued: “So if these people go out on a tour of the country and go as far as naming a new president, it’s impossible for us to work with those people.
“Also, if we (SIC) announce the sighting of the moon, they (Rawdatual Majalis) will announce that the moon is not sighted. They use the media to discredit us and to confuse people.”
Rawdatul Majalis’s Abubacarr Jabbi fired back saying the current Supreme Islamic Council is a ‘club of friends’.
Jabbi said: “These are all accusations. For him to say Rawdatul Majalis is made up of people from just one tribe is an allegation.
“We all know what Supreme Islamic Council did to Gambians; imams were beaten, imams were imprisoned and imams were stopped from observing Eid.”
Rawdatul Majalis, a group established in 2017 to bring all Islamic sects in the country together, is soaked in a bitter leadership row with the current leaders of Supreme Islamic Council. The group says the term of office of the current leadership has expired.
