Gambia: The Head of State proclaims the “Islamic Republic”
The President of Gambia, Yaya Jammeh (on the picture), proclaimed, on December 10, 2015, that from now on the country would be an “Islamic State”. The destiny of the ex-British colony, which is geographically surrounded by Senegal (West Africa), is “in the hands of Allah the Almighty”, its Head of State declared, as cited by La Croix on December 13, 2015.
According to the website Oeil d’Afrique [Eye of Africa] on January 11, 2016, an Islamic police force has already been created within the secret service to oversee the application of “Islamization measures”. The first of these, by a decree issued on December 31, 2015, was to compel female public employees to wear the veil. Thus, on national television, the Christian journalist Nicole Winifred has appeared onscreen since then with her head covered.
A Christian woman working in the President’s office declared to the newspaper aligned with the Gambian opposition, Freedom Newspaper, that Christianity was being “defamed, crucified and persecuted”. Another female official in the Gambian Justice Ministry confirmed to Oeil d’Afrique that Christian women were forced to adopt a “new” dress code: “Every Gambian woman who is not veiled automatically lost her job,” in public service.
The composition of the population of Gambia, an estimated two million, is 90% Muslim. The other inhabitants for the most part profess the Christian faith.
(Sources: apic/lacroix/oeildafrique – DICI no. 329 dated January 29, 2016)
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