Speaking in a wide ranging exclusive interview with The Standard yesterday, he asserted: “There is a lot of good here because the ruler, President Jammeh is himself Islamically-concerned. He promotes Islam and he supports the local scholars. That is a good thing, that means that Islam is present in the society. So The Gambia is a comfortable place for a Muslim to live. The Gambia is a relatively secure country. The security makes one feel comfortable for being here relative to a number of other countries
“[However], one of the biggest sources of corruption in the country are from foreign teachers… You have to remember that the country is a growing, developing country. It has a long way to go technologically and infrastructurally.”
Explaining the work he has been doing in The Gambia, the Jamaican born world renowned Islamic scholar stated: “We have been enrolling Gambian students in online Islamic and English courses. Our approach has been very progressive because from the time we started offering shari’ah courses, we required all of our graduates, all of those who are studying in our programmes to take courses in business, management, English and psychology. They study psychology to be able to counsel; education to be able to teach; economics to be able to guide people economically; business administration in order to administer and to manage. Those are critical fields for those who graduate from the shar’iah programme.”
Read the full interview of Dr Philips in our Thursday, April 17 edition ‘Bantaba’ column.
By Sainey Darboe & Ousman Bojang
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