Youth demand gov’t intervention
May 16, 2019
The embattled Fula Mosque at Siaka Steven Street
Youth of the Siaka Street Fula Mosque adjacent Choithram Supermarket have called on the government and other members of the Muslim Community to intervene and ensure the re-opening of the mosque which has remained closed for the past six months.
Deputy Youth Secretary General of the Mosque, Mohamed Muctarr Bah, on Tuesday told Concord Times that the holy place has remained closed since November 2018, due to what he referred to as some disagreement among worshippers as to who should head it, thereby preventing worshipers from using the facility.
Bah told Concord Times that the initial agreement was that the leadership of the mosque should be drawn within the area where it is located, but that other influential members of the Fula community had wanted to do otherwise, hence the confrontation.
According to him, the issue attracted Vice President Juldeh Jalloh, who intervened and tried to settle the dispute, but to no avail.
He said they were invited at the residence of Vice President Jalloh but that parties to the matter were not satisfied with the outcome and that the police intervened, closed the mosque and deployed permanent armed police officers there.
One of the burning issues he expressed is that they created a space within the mosque for school and that the children have been deprived from attending school at the convenient space provided for them within the facility.
“We are calling on the government and other members of the Muslim Community to intervene and handle the matter amicably. We have been deprived of using the Mosque in this Holy Month of Ramadan,” he said.
Another youth, Maju Bah, who is the Financial Secretary, expressed similar concern and stated that they should not continue to be deprived of using the facility which they have suffered a lot to maintain for the past years.