CAIRO, October 29 (IslamOnline.net) - Muslim Gambians are against any constitutional amendments secularizing the predominantly-Muslim West African country, a Gambian Muslim scholar told IslamOnline.net.

"We are fighting the cancer of secularism all along the last two years after attempts to amend the constitution for drifting the democratic country into secularism began," head of Islamic and Arabic studies in the Gambia university Omar Gah said.

Gah warned against the drain of a secular constitution on the Muslim majority, and raised fears that applying Shari`ah-based judiciary, wearing hijab and resuming Islamic and Arabic studies could be cancelled in sequence.

"Thanks to our articles likening the wide effects of terrorism to that of cancer, and the support of opposition parties, we won a court rule deeming the amend of secularism unconstitutional," he said with an evident triumphant tone.

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks against the United States, some Gambians propagated Islamophobic ideas for "more gains and powers in the country".

"But the country enjoys a unique religious tolerance, with the largest two sects, Muslims who are making up 95 percent of the overall population and Christians 4 percent, are living side by side without running into any snags," said Gah.

He said Islam first arrived in the country in the tenth century, six centuries before Christianinity.

"Islam had come to the country with Moroccan tradesmen, mostly Sufis, whose spreading of morals pushed many idolaters to convert," he noted.

But Gah lamented that Christians are overrepresented in the government disproportionately given their numbers.

President of the county, Yahya Jammeh, is a Muslim, but the government is mixed with Muslim and Christian members.

"Muslims run many radio programs, mostly in local languages which decision makers in The Gambia does not gain access to, the Islamic scholar said, calling for Muslims to "unify their voices".

"We are trying to join forces for making one religious speech, standing up to external pressures on Islam and eradicating extremism," he said.

But the omens did not bode well for Muslims as to the issue of hijab, especially after Jammeh himself attacked the Islamic headwear after September 11 events.

"Hijab is instructed by the Islamic teachings. It is not against Christianity," Gah said, referring to the banning of the headscarf in some Christian schools in the country.

In education, Arab schools are flourishing along with English schools, with the former's curricula are the same studied in Saudi Arabia and the Cairo-based reverend institution of Al-Azhar.

In official English schools, Arabic could be selected by the students, while the subject of Islamic education is mandatory for Muslim students, under what is called "the double program".

The program imposes basic subjects to study in all schools, as English and mathematics, and others be chosen according to the system followed in each school.

Gah hailed the program as facilitating the switch of the English schools into Muslim ones, and vice versa," Gah said.

According to International Religious Freedom Report 2002, issued by the U.S. State Department every year, the Gambian Government permits and does not limit religious instruction in schools, and Bible and Qur’anic studies are provided in both public and private schools throughout the country without government restriction or interference.