provoking attack on his palace

By Kemo Cham

Senegal's president, Abdoulie Wade, is once again embroiled in another round of controversy after a provocative remark he made, annoying the country's Christian Community.

A group of Christians on Wednesday descended on the presidential palace in central Dakar, where they threw stones and other missiles at the building housing the Senegalese president. Wade, earlier on Tuesday, made an unpalatable comparisons between his highly controversial monument of the Renaissance and the cross.

The octogenarian Senegalese leader who seems to be enjoying floating in a sea of controversies these days sparked outcry as he defended the construction of the multi-million dollar monument that has come under constant attack by a section of Senegalese Imams, who up till now seems relentless in their pursuit.

The president told a gathering at a national teachers conference in Dakar that while Catholics pray to someone who is not God, no one talks about that, yet they continue to attack his monument which, he maintains, is purely meant to preserve the cultural heritage of the continent of Africa.

"They pray to a man, Jesus Christ, someone who is not a God. People do not find anything to tell them, nobody makes any objection, including myself. When I go to church, I am not interested in what goes on inside, because I am a Muslim. This is not my problem," the president, whose French wife is a practicing Christian, said amid rapturous applause from the audience.

The riotous Christians who were mainly youths argued that the president has shown no respect for their religion, and so they went on the rampage, disrupting traffic and littering the streets with missiles, before riot police arrived at the scene and contained the situation.

Later in the evening, the presidential side embarked on a damage limitation spree.

Senior minister of state, Karim Wade, son of the Senegalese president, emerged from State House to convey a message to waiting pressmen from his father, whom he said deeply regretted his utterances and called for understanding between Muslims and Christians.

Wade the son said Wade the father acknowledged with regret the fact that his remark has caused such scars between Christians and Muslims, and that he was seeking for forgiveness.

This is not the first time Wade is making such controversial religious statement. Just about last month, he impliedly referred to Senegalese Christians as ingrates, accusing them of never wanting to acknowledge his numerous support for them. That remark attracted a damning response from a Dakar based priest, Andrew Latir, who said that if Senegalese Christians were to be grateful to any person, it is the Senegalese people, and not an individual.

President Wade's latest comment have so far received no less attention as it has attracted swift condemnation from across the entire nation, more so in fact from Muslim religious leaders, who were already nursing their anger of an earlier statement the president made, which the religious people think sounds offending to the both the prophet of Islam, Muhammed (PBH), and the renowned Senegalese religious scholars.

A number of independent minded religious leaders in the country have denounced the president's attack on Christians.

''President Abdoulie Wade knows nothing in religion. He can talk about politics, but he must leave religion for religious scholars,'' one scholar was quoted as saying. Such irresponsible statement by a head of state, he added, can spark religious unrest in the country.

And as was witnessed on Wednesday evening, the president's remark has sparked what is rarely an occurrence in Senegal, religious riots.

Many fear that this might degenerate into more serious problems, considering the unspoken radicalised nature of some followers of the largest Muslim sect in the country, the Mourid, which President Wade is a member of.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Theodor Adrean Sarr, respectable Roman Catholic representative responsible for Gambian and Senegal, has called on Christians to remain steadfast and to ignore the president's remark in the interest of peace.