By Amadou Jadama
Former State House imam, Abdoulie Fatty, has renewed his uncompromising opposition on the banning of Female Genital Mutilation, repeating call for the National Assembly to repeal it.
The imam sparked controversy by openly criticising the law and calling on the country’s Muslim population to continue the practice as it is not un-Islamic.
Women and human rights activists have condemned him for being an extremist and making inciteful comments which he denied.
In his sermon last Friday, the imam asked whether the judiciary and the National Assembly “want us to abandon the Holy Book of Allah and the Sunnah of his Prophet to accept the wishes of only a few people’s decision. As from today, we say no to the wishes of these few people and will follow the Sunnah of the Prophet and whatever you want to do, go ahead. We have no guns or other means, except Allah who has the power over all things. If anybody who wants to be a disbeliever, go ahead but no one will impose something on us that Allah has not sanctioned,” he warned.
Righteous women
Imam Fatty used the sermon to advise Muslims to marry only pious and righteous women who come from good families, if they want to succeed in their marriages.
Giving an example, the imam said he got information that a father who took his daughter to circumcision was reported to the police by his ex-wife and the man was charged and taken to court. ”The woman should have been ashamed of that and her family too failed to tell her the truth, and that is how bad the woman is, because she is an enemy to the man,” he said.
In comparison, the imam also told the story of what he called a good woman: “There is a woman whose husband beat her and broke her four teeth. Her parents asked her to take him to the police but she refused saying she accepted it in good faith. If that women can forgive her husband for that, why would the other woman take her former husband to police for circumcising his own child?” Imam Fatty asked.
