The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council declares closure of mosques.

The GCIS under the leadership of Imam Muhammed Lamin Touray, on Tuesday  24 March 2020,  declares the temporal closure of mosques across The Gambia.

This is a directive from the office of the president regarding the COVID—19 pandemic. Mosque leaders are instructed to adhere to the directive given by the president’s office until further notice.

Ibrahim Ceesay, and Muhammed Kanyi both UTG students, strongly concur to  how it is a commandment from Allah (SWT) to follow suit the leader’s decision.
They believe the GSIC did exactly what is expected of them, since they were compelled by The Gambia government to make such declaration.

Al Amin Jarju, an Islamic researcher says, “My view on the abandonment of Jamaah Salaah at Masaajid and  abandoning Jumaah Salaah should be critically looked at.”
He lamented that, there have been plague outbreaks during the time of the messenger of Allah, Muhammad (saw), and that never stopped congregational prayers.
To Al Amin, this is something that should have been further looked at, before being implemented.

Aminata Ceesay, a concerned muslim, with disgruntlement, expressed her disappointment by disapproving the decision made by The Gambia government through the GSIC.
“If the mosques are shut down where are we going to pray for Allah’s mercy from?”
She added that, if only she knew where to express her dissatisfaction she would have done that as soon as possible.

“It have come to Gambia closing masjids to combat Covid 19.[sic]
I am not against it. But how about the public transport, Markets and many other places where crowds meet,
What should be done with regards to them.. Please let’s join heads for ideas..” says one Alieu Sabally.
To Sabally, there could be a better way of preventing the spread of the COVID—19 but, the closure of mosques, he believes people can still spread the virus through public transports, and in market places as well.

To many Gambians, this is the best thing to be done in trying times like this.

However, a good number of people still detest the idea, and believe it is too soon to close mosques across the country.

Now the main question is;

Does The Gambia have a high number of confirmed COVID—19 cases that deemed it paramount for mosques to get locked down?