This is not a departure from Yahya Janneh’s previous statements:
Gambia’s president calls gays “vermin,” says will fight them like “malaria-causing mosquitoes”
Gambian Prez vows to behead every homosexual in the country
“The Gambia now an Islamic republic, says President Yahya Jammeh,” Guardian, December 12, 2015:
The Gambia has been declared an Islamic republic by President Yahya Jammeh who said he wanted to further distance the west African state from its colonial past.
The tiny, formerly secular country – named after the river from which British ships are said to have fired cannonballs to fix its borders – joins the ranks of other officially Islamic republics such as Iran and Afghanistan.
“In line with the country’s religious identity and values I proclaim Gambia as an Islamic state,” said Jammeh on state television. “As Muslims are the majority in the country, Gambia cannot afford to continue the colonial legacy.”
The Gambia’s population of 1.8 million people are 95% Muslim. Jammeh said citizens of other faiths would still be able to practise.
Jammeh, an animated orator who has earned the reputation for making surprise declarations over the course of his 21-year presidency, pulled the Gambia out of the Commonwealth in 2013, calling it neo-colonial. In 2007 he claimed to have found a herbal cure for Aids.
In November the president announced he would outlaw female genital mutilation after international pressure that included a campaign by the Guardian. However activists have since said continued international pressure is needed for the president to pass his declaration into law.
Despite strong commercial ties with Britain and other European countries whose citizens are regular visitors to the Gambia’s white-sand beaches, relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years.
The European Union temporarily withheld aid money in 2014 over Gambia’s poor human rights record. The Gambia, whose main industries are agriculture and tourism, ranks 165 out of 187 countries on the UN development index….

Joseph says
Gee look who is posing with the Gambian president. Small wonder.
http://newsafrica.co.uk/shock-as-us-makes-arrests-over-coup-plot-against-yahya-jammeh/
Sam says
Thanks for the picture. It is amazing how comfortable this Obama is with Evil Muslims and how apparently uncomfortable with western leaders. Like with Putin.
Don McKellar says
Like three peas in a pod.
Mo says
@ Joseph
“Gee look who is posing with the Gambian president. ”
Wow.
And look at that huge smile while posing with this evil man. Disgusting!
Bamaguje says
Why doesn’t he go all the way and pledge allegiance to ISIS?
“In line with the country’s religious identity and values I proclaim Gambia as an Islamic state” – Yahya Jammeh.
mahghan says
Poor country with a “double whammy colonial identity” first and continuing by Arab colonial imperialism then by the British. The British pulled out leaving Bathurst and those rusty cannons at Fort George and slave marts at places like Georgetown.
But the virus of Arab cultural imperialism has invaded the bloodstream of the Gambia and increasing its viral load under Jammeh.
Subconsciously, many Europeans and Arabs believe that Africans lack the spirit of autonomy and full self-conscious identity. Jammeh is just compounding that belief.
Evolution says
It’s abu-barack and michael obama !
I don’t know why I was surprised when I followed the link.
Judi says
Would you believe this Aids-riddled Third-world muslime s**thole is a favoured holiday destination for Brits!
john spielman says
didn’t you read that that president (for life?) Jammeh discovered an herbal cure for AIDS?
خَليفة says
Wonder why he would need a cure for AIDS?
A pious Muslim would not get AIDS.
He just said he was going to kill all gays.
So why would he even be Looking for a cure?
Maybe he’s got something to hide.
Don McKellar says
I wonder how this Islamic monster keeps his fellow jihadis from kidnapping them all? That’s quite a trick. I guess they realize that he’s going to cut their heads off if they mess around with the tourist industry.
KnowThyEnemy says
The jihadis kidnap people and commit other atrocities with the aim of establishing Sharia (to make the state more Islamic). But when the president of the country himself is working to make the state more Islamic (e.g. Turkey, Gambia), Muslims have few reasons left to do jihad. Not saying they can’t find a [fully Islamic] reason, only that the number of reasons go down.
Saudi Arabia had suffered jihad attacks in the 1970s and so they implemented full Sharia. Jihad activity against the kingdom went down accordingly.
mahghan says
Strangely enough, Erdogan is also seen as another crazy, mentally challenged crackpot too.
Mirren10 says
Judi:
You excoriate those who simply holiday in these places. I believe you are wrong. Speaking only for myself, I have been to the Gambia many times; I have family and friends who live there.
My reasons for going there are down to family and friends. You have no knowledge as to why any one goes there. End of.
Pong says
Mirren. It will come as surprise to you, but some people have principles.
Myxlplik says
Pretty soon we’ll see Gambia with a seat on the OHCHR along with Saudi Arabia.
Maybe CNN will do a story on how Gambia became radicalized, and unIslamic.
nacazo says
Yea, the “evil” European colonialism which lasted maybe 200 years gets all the bad publicity but the really evil Islamic colonialism of the mind which has 1400 years and its still going gets not even a beep.
mahghan says
European colonialism lasted from 1885(The Berlin Conference) to the 1960s for most of Africa. Thus less than 100 years. The reason for Islam’s success in Africa–the only continent where it has made serious inroads, with Asia refusing to give up Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, etc. in favor of Islam, and Europe repulsing Islam every time it barged in Spain, Italy, France, Hungary, etc.–is that European colonialism was really about economics and material goods, not the more insidious spiritual goods that Islam dangles before the naive and illiterate.
The victims of Islam have been so psychologically seized that they think nothing of going on foaming at the mouth demonstrations with placards screaming: “Don’t Insult our Prophet” and “Behead all those who insult Islam”.
Myxlplik says
“It seems to me that there is a lot of hate” coming out of the newly declared Islamic Republic of Gambia, “we should be looking into that” relative to our immigration policy.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
It’s been a while since Kosovo set up shop as the newest Moslem country, so congrats to Gambia on this. Next thing they should do is set up an Islamic State Bureau to get the ball rolling.
As if Africa didn’t have enough problems, now add another Islamic Republic.
vlparker says
Damn, now I gotta cancel my vacation plans.
Charli Main says
I suppose that this means, that the other non Muslim 5% will become non citizens in the land of their birth but will be allowed to live as long as they pay Jizya and make their wives and daughters available, as required, by their Muslim overlords.
خَليفة says
another one bites the dust
Gambia is on a road to violence and untold horrors
Western countries should not deal with any country that does not sign, and uphold, the universal declaration of human rights
Does jammeh not know he is black? Does he know Islam considers him worthy of being a slave? Does he not know that Islam abhors anything that is all black? A black dog is a devil, where a brown or yellow dog is not.
JawsV says
Another fabulous Islamic country!! (sarcasm)
Angemon says
And what better way to distance itself from its “colonizers” than going back in time, striving to become a 7th century arab land?
mahghan says
And not being a fully conscious African, Jammeh just does bot realize that the much greater and more insidious colonial legacy comes from Arab cultural imperialism. He would reject a name for Gambia such as “British Republic of Gambia” but slavishly accept “Islamic[Arab] Republic of Gambia”. Muhammad kept black slaves and saw nothing wrong with raping them when captured in battle and enslaving them One of Muhammad’s epithets for Africans was “raisin head” yet Jammeh totally lacking in self-respect embraces this totalitarian form of Arab imperialism.
Does Jammeh know his Islamic literature. Just obsessively stroking worry beads and chanting in Arabic 5 times a day is not enough.
Narrated Anas bib Malik: Allah’s Apostle said, “You should listen to an obey your ruler even if he is a black slave whose head looks like a riasin”. Sahih Bukhari 1:11:662
For Muhammad the value of a black slave is 1/2 that of a non-black slave. Jabir(Allah be pleased with him) reported: There came a slave and pledged allegiance to Allah’s Apostle on the issue of migration. The Prophet did not know he was a slave till his master came and demanded him back. Muhammad said ‘sell him to me’ and exchanged him for 2 black slaves. Sahih Muslim 10:3901.
Abu Darda wrote: The Holy Prophet said that when Allah created Adam, he stroked his right shoulder and ushered forth the white race as if they were seeds. Allah stroked the left shoulder of Adam and took out the black race as if they were coals. Then Allah’s Apostle said: those on the right side are for Paradise and I don’t care. Those on the left side are for Hell–and I don’t care”. Mishkat, Vol. 3, 117.
Does Jammeh know that the Prophet of Islam was a confounded racist? One must suspect that even if he did know, it would not make nay difference. Such is his slave fealty to the founding father of Arab cultural imperialism. Here is one colonial mentality that does not recognize its abject servility.
gravenimage says
Gambia declared an Islamic republic
……………………
Knowing what I know of Yahya Janneh, this does not surprise.
This is just codifying what has been underway for at least the past several years, when Gambia began imposing Shari’ah law:
“Gambia to introduce controversial sharia law”
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/722300.shtml
This despite his assuaging Western fears in 2000 by saying Gambia “has no plans for Islamic law”.
tgk says
‘This despite his assuaging Western fears in 2000 by saying Gambia “has no plans for Islamic law”.’ The West still has to come to terms with Taqqiyya!
No Fear says
President Yahya Jammeh should know that his country deserves economic sanctions simply because he has declared it an Islamic state.
He is beneath contempt.
Keith Jordan says
Say nohno to Yahya!