Ever since youth have been playing a pivotal role in the propagation and spreading of Islam all over the world. Thus the role of youths in Islam cannot be over emphasised.

It is said that during the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) young people were always at the forefront even during jihad (Muslim Holy war). They made a lot of selfless sacrifices to see to it that Islam grew speedily and defeat its enemies. It was also said that Muslim youths at the time always gave up their lives for the sake of the religion. Well Muslim youth in The Gambia are also playing their role as future hopes of this great and righteous religion.

In this Holy Month of Ramadan for instance particularly during these last ten days the young people are playing a very important role in our mosques.

Youth are found in almost all the major mosques in the Greater Banjul Area leading prayers through out the night. Before in The Gambia, very few youths were able to able to master the whole Quaran known as (Hafiq Quran) but today many youth in the country can read the whole Quran off head.

Young people should continue to rededicate their efforts in the promoting and propagating Islam. Young people are able, strong and active thus the need to continue play their role in Islam as the religion needs them.

As future Islamic leaders, Muslim youth must continue to follow in the footsteps of the current prominent scholars. This is definitely attainable if young people change their attitude towards Allah. Youth should continue to say their prayers regularly if they are to be sure of entering paradise.  As Muslim youths we must always intensify our efforts and always defend this powerful religion of ours.

Alhagie Momodou Lamin Touray, a renowned Islamic scholar based in Gunjur, Kombo South, was yesterday elected president of the Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) on the second day of the council’s 4thGeneral Congress.

Momodou Lamin Touray and 10 others went unopposed following the end of term of the former executive.

The other executive members are: Alhagie Sheriff Bojang, 1stVice President; Sheikh Gibril Kujabi, 2ndVice President; Dr. Mbye Kebba Kah, Secretary-General; Ebrima Touray, Deputy Secretary-General; Ajaratou Jainaba Dibba, Assistant Secretary General English; Cherno Darboe,Assistant Secretary-General Arabic; Baba Drammeh Junior, Treasurer; Alhagie Mamadou Lamin Kanteh, Assistant Treasurer; Alhagie Baba Bubacarr Drammeh, Auditorand Aja Maimuna Savage, Assistant Auditor.

In his farewell speech, the outgoing president of SIC, Alh. Banding Drammeh, assured the new executive of his continued support. He called for unity and understanding among Muslims in the country. The names of these executive members were announced by the Returning Officer, Alhaji Mustapha Carrayol, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

For his part, President-elect Alhagie Momodou Lamin Touray thanked God for his divine intervention. He also thanked Muslims for the trust and confidence they bestowed on the new executive. He concluded by appealing for the support of the entire Muslim community.

Earlier, in declaring the congress officially opened on Saturday, Ismaila Sambou, Secretary of State for Religious Affairs, urged the incoming executive to endeavour to jealously safeguard the achievements registered by the outgoing executive over the years. He encouraged them to develop projects that will enhance the economic wellbeing of the citizenry.

In his financial report, the outgoing treasurer, Sheikh Abdullahi Minteh, revealed that they have a total income of D16,600,984.99 out of which they spent D16,535,460.06 with an excess income of after expenditure of D65,524.93.

Alh. Kebba Landing Sanyang, the outgoing Auditor, confirmed these reports as correct.

Mohammed Lamin Sarr, former Secretary General of the council, outlined the activities carried out by the council. He urged the new executive to take good care of the council’s facilities both at the Doha Conference Centre and the Imam Training Centre. He said that since they took over office in 2003, there was no standby budget for the council but with a well-defined plan of action, they managed to make significant progress. He thanked President Jammeh and all those who supported the council.

The 4thSIC congress held at its new headquarters in Kanifing, along MDI road and attended by delegates from across the country, was held under tight security.

The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council, the umbrella body of all Islamic institutions in the Gambia, has conveyed a strongly worded statement, requesting all media institutions in The Gambia “to stop all programmes advocating and defending the Shi’ate beliefs.

” The statement, signed by the out-going president of the Council, calls for a halt to any form of publicity, with immediate effect, arguing that it was passing the order in accordance with its mandate as the principal advisor of government on matters of Islam.

The Gambia has a high population of 63,000 orphans, the causes of which are due to several factors ranging from poverty and other preventable diseases, like HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. Reliable reports indicated that 44 million in 34 developing countries are likely to lose a parent in the next years to come thus leaving them to become orphans.

Ummul Qura Foundation a charitable organization started its operations some 14 years ago in the Gambia. As   part of its activities of sponsoring orphans, the Ummul Qura Foundation for Islamic Studies and Research began its second Islamic studies course on August the 2^nd 2008 at its headquarters in Faji kunda in the KMC municipality. A total of 150 orphans are participating in a one month long summer classes.

 This shows that apart from helping the orphans with clothing and money they are also into offering some other form of social services by educating the orphans, said Abubacarr Mohammed Loum chairman of the occasion and vice president of the project.

Speaking at the start of the course Sheikh Mohammed Jonga the course director   indicated that the course is sponsored by the orphans committee of Sheikh Eid Bin Muhammad Al-Thani Charity Association, a charitable organization, based in the Gulf state of Qatar. He said a similar course is done in sixteen other countries in Africa, Asia and Europe simultaneously, and 27 Islamic organizations of which his organization is one of them are conducting the courses. A total of up 3700 orphans altogether are benefiting from such a course worldwide .Jonga told the gathering.

The President of the Foundation Alhagie Mustapha Cham said the foundation is currently sporting 205 orphans. This number rose over the last 14 years from 35 orphans to 205 today. He informed the meeting that, they still have more than 200 applicants who are yet to be sponsored.  Cham said we are not only in the business of giving out hand out but also trying to educate these orphans in their religion.

Ms Fanta Sisay director of Social Welfare who is also the guest speaker inform the gathering that The Gambia has up to 63,000 orphans. She implore the foundation to do more in also sensitizing the donors who are only concern with children whose father are dead but the ones whose mother’s too die need assistance. She calls on the religious leaders and elders of our communities to help in preaching our children to have respect for our religion and cultures as our homes are getting out of orders.

Other speakers included The President of the Gambia Supreme Islamic council Alhagie Cherno banding Drammeh and his vice Dr. Jah, all of who call for discipline and respect for our culture and religion.

                                                                                                        Mariama Ceesay

A day conference aimed at broadening the knowledge and understanding of youths on the teachings of Islam, migration and other challenges being faced by them was held recently at The Gambia Senior Secondary School in Banjul.

The forum, which brought together many Muslim youths from the greater Banjul Area and Muslim youth organisations, was organised by one Alieu Jawara a Gambian youth residing in Canada.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr.Jawara said that the migration of people’s minds from being obedient to disobedient and the movement of people from one place to another are all critical forms of migration affecting the youth of the nation.

He said it is not worth it for people to venture on a dangerous journey like illegal migration in the name of looking for greener pastures. “Greener pastures of which you are not even sure of attaining,” he said. According to him, consequences of illegal migration for the victims are too high. The venture, he said, is not only making youths lose their lives but their religion as well. “The purpose of man on earth is only to worship Allah and nothing else,” he stated.

He added that during the journey the adventurers normally miss many prayer times, which he said is not in their interest, both in this world and hereafter.

Mr, Jawara also lamented the fact that the habit of some Muslims behaving as non-Muslims is also causing a lot of problems in the world. He reminded the youths that Islam is the religion that supersedes all other religions as said in the Holly Qura’n.

Other speakers at the occasion included the representatives of the Federation of The Gambia Muslim Student’s Organisation (FEGAMSO) and Ansar Brotherhood.

Brother Mustapha Barry, president of FEGAMSO, gave a brief history of this association. According to him, the association was founded in 1995 and is the umbrella body of all school based Islamic clubs and societies in the country. It aims to promote and propagate the teachings of Islam. He called for closer collaboration between Muslim youth organisations in the country and for them to put their efforts together to achieve their objectives.

How can Muslims contribute in Promoting Peace in the 21stcentury?

As defined above, globalization is based on secular materialistic philosophy whose main target is to marginalize religion, especially Islam and Muslims. But as we said earlier, globalism as consciously designed is different from globalism as unconsciously unfolding.

The Tijaniyyah mystic Order describes the Prophet in their system of invocation as “the Opener of what was closed). The positive forces of globalism must be read against the back ground of the Prophet being the opener of what was closed (al-Fatih li ma Ughliq). As a result, neither ignoring the forces of globalism nor adopting it lock stock and barrel will be the solutions. So, given the problems outlined above, in order for Muslims to promote peace, the writer would suggest the following:

1- Embarking on a process of restoration of Muslim self-dignity and self- Integrity. This is because an internally weak and hopeless individual cannot effectively promote peace. The way to do that is to cure our disease of loss of adab by valuing knowledge and the learned, respect hierarchical authority and revitalize and develop ethics of disagreement as were established by our upright ancestors

2- As the Prophet showed us a gentle, calm rational respond to the provocation of an aggressor. The Qur’an says: and when the foolish addresses them (with bad words) the y reply back with words of salam (peace), al-Furqan 25: 63

Such an approach necessitates perfection of the art of debate and dialogue. I emphasis perfection here for a simple reason that in order for one to engage in effective and productive dialogue, one needs to read extensively to be intellectually well-equipped to know the strategies and tactics of those with whom he dialogue, especially if we know that dialogue according to the Prophet never mean compromising one’s fundamentals and especially when we also know that the other party does not just dialogue but they dialogue based on a strategy of the world mind game for which they have been highly equipped

Based on the Qur’anic and prophetic method of the necessity of the balance of powers, Muslims can also contribute to peace by seriously getting ready for deterrent engagements of self-defense. The Prophet showed us that demands of the flesh satisfying vices like greed must be curbed. The greedy if not forcefully deterred will continue to prey on the weak. So, constant readiness for defensive war can contribute to the world peace. It was in this vein that the Prophet warned us of wahan (extreme love of this world and fear of death to preserve dignity)

The study, titled Action Aid Study on Women and Islam, aims among other things to clearly demonstrate the position of Islam pertaining to gender and to challenge some misgivings about Islamic gender policies.

The findings of the survey results show that the professional level, responses from Islamic religious leaders vis-à-vis Islamic law and covering of a women’s face in public, obligation of the female circumcision in Islam, and Islamic law and women’s inheritance of land are somehow disturbing.

In general, the findings show that although much needs to be done, if the present Gambian gender attitudes and policies are read against the background of the researcher’s theoretical framework, The Gambia can be characterised as a country on the right track.

Recommendations of the findings suggest that there is a need for more funding for research like the one being launched in order to bring to the fore the comparison in a more universal sample size.

It further suggested that government should establish a bureau comprising a male and female scholars at the level of the Qadi Appeal panel, whose jurisdiction would be to investigate complaints from couples with regard to the abuse of power in divorce or khul. It also highlights the need for capacity building for Qadis as well as strengthening of the recording techniques at Qadi courts in order to facilitate the due process of family law matters.

Speaking on the occasion, the author of the report, Dr Jah, said that the study demonstrates that every legal, political, or sociological complication at any age, Islam can give a proper solution if handled properly based on a pure Islamic worldview and agenda. “The issue of gender is cross cutting, and to demonstrate the Islamic perception to the gender discourse a refined handling of the Qur’anic and the Sunni injunctions is need to cause a proper orientation of attitudes and policies,” he said.

Dr Jah commended all individuals and institutions who supported him during the research.

Participants at the launch of the study all applauded Dr. Omar Jah for a job well done.