Imam Abdoulie Fatty, an outspoken supporter of female circumcision, has called for a social and economic boycott of all those advocating against the practice.

Fatty, who delivered the sermon at the Friday congregational prayers at Masjid Zubair in New Jeshwang, advised Gambians who are concerned about the purity of their faith to avoid contact with anti-FGM protesters in the country’s villages and towns.
He urged his fans to boycott their businesses and refuse to attend their marriages, naming ceremonies, and funerals.

“Anyone who denies what Islam recommends and accepts is a kafirr (disbeliever),” he raged, and the campaign organization Gamcotrap are kafirrs. They are converting our Muslim children, including ourselves, into atheists who oppose Allah and His Prophet…”

According to the Saudi-trained cleric, famous Islamic scholars such as Imam Malik, Imam Ahmad, and Imam Hanifa have decided that female circumcision is Islamic. He also mentioned countries that recognize FGM as Islamic.

According to Fatty, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America and Malaysia’s National Centre of Islamic Affairs, among others, have decided that female circumcision is mandatory for Muslim women.

Gamcotrap was challenged by the imam to produce a list of girls who died after being circumcised.

He urged Muslim youth organizations in the country to start a petition campaign to repeal the 2015 Women’s Act, which criminalized FGM.

Imam Fatty has been in a public spat with anti-FGM campaigners for the past two weeks after his organization paid the fines of three women condemned to FGM in Niani Bakadagi, Central River Region.