By Omar Bah
Outspoken imam of Kanifing East Mosque Baba Leigh, has urged muslims and citizens to embrace each other, avoid dividing people and be accountable in governance and in personal conduct.
The imam, who is also a commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission, was addressing mourners on Tuesday at the funeral of former foreign minister ML Sedat Jobe.
The mourners included politicians from all sides. He called for decency and tolerance among the politicians arguing that politics should not be used as a tool to divide Gambians.
“Today in this gathering, we have people from the opposition, governing party and many others, demonstrating the oneness of this nation and her people. Let this man’s death teach us that we are not going to be here forever and our fate in the next world would not be determined by which party or government we served on this earth. All what we would be asked would be who is our prophet, our God and whether we have been observing the five daily prayers. Once we have this realisation, nothing would divide us,” Imam Leigh preached.
He added: “Let us be careful of divisive politics and politics of insults. This country belongs to all of us. All the political parties are represented here to say farewell to one of us. So why should this-worldly politics divide us? I believe something temporal like politics should not be a hindrance to coexistence as a people. Let us also be reminded that death is inevitable, so let us be sincere with each other and be each other’s keeper and stop showing love and compassion to people only when they die. That is not humanity. Sedat Jobe was admitted for months in Dakar, Senegal, but very few people went to check on him. But today, everyone is trying to take ownership. We should be careful of that. Let us love and support each other while we are alive,” the imam told his large audience of mourners.
