By Amadou Jadama
The United Democratic Party regional youth coordinator for West Coast Region, Foday Gassama has said that Imam Abdoulie Fatty has lost his cause as a respected religious leader when he tried to defend Yahya Jammeh’s fate at his mother’s funeral.
The outspoken Imam had said that Jerry Rawlings of Ghana did worse things than Jammeh but he has not been forced to go to exile, adding that Gambians should be more mature than that.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday, Gassama said Imam Fatty has deviated from his role as a religious leader to become a politician because his statement is political in nature.
“His role should stop at preaching Islam, to convince non-Muslims to convert to Islam. That is what he understands,” he said, adding that Jammeh’s atrocities caused him to seek refuge in Equatorial Guinea.
“Where was Imam Fatty when Jammeh refused the repatriation of the bodies of Kukoi Samba Sanyang, Foday Makalo and Buba Baldeh to be buried here, or when Deyda Hydara a prominent Gambian Journalist was murdered?” he asked. Gassama said Imam Fatty should have used his closeness to Jammeh as Imam of State House to ask Jammeh to stop those cruel things because killing is forbidden in Islam.
Gassama denied that Rawlings committed more crimes than Jammeh.
“In any case Imam Fatty’s statement was out of place because that was a funeral and not a political event,” Gassama concluded.
