It is with great disappointment that we learnt of thieves breaking into a church recently in Faji Kunda, with the intention of carting away with properties belonging to the church. Holy places like a church and Mosque, are both meant for worshiping, and are houses of God.

Breaking into these places just to steal and destroy, especially the tabernacle where the body of Christ is kept and the altar, is indeed unacceptable. In fact stealing in general is bad and should not be condone in any civilized society.

It’s clear that there is no money kept in the tabernacle and one can’t just imagine the rationale behind thieving it, much more to throw it away after trying to break it.

It could be recalled that St. Therese, St. Peters and Bullock Churches were onetime victims of such a terrible incident.

In a related development, a bicycle belonging to one Bakary Drammeh was recently stolen at the Faji Kunda Central Mosque.

Experience have also shown that in recent years, especially during the month of Ramadan while some people are busied praying at night time, others are hell bent on using the opportunity to steal their shoes.

It’s disheartening that when people are busy worshiping in the case of a mosque, others capitalise on the opportunity to steal their personal effects.

This act must stop now and perpetrators must also face the full force of the law.

Stealing is very bad, particularly in holy places like Mosques and Churches.

These holy places are in most cases developed from individual donations and contributions, or those made by organisations. Why should such a place be the target of thieves?

Fr. Francis Eyo MSP, Parish Priest of Faji Kunda, the most recent victim said “Something must be done about this”. We add our voice to the Fr.'s for this to end now rather than later.

We totally agreed with him that something needs to be done because it can’t continue like this in a decent society where the church has entered an era where “Operation self-reliance” has been launched. Stealing and destroying properties belonging to the church will make it even poorer than expected.

The recently ended AECAWA meeting hosted by the Gambia, which was welcomed by both Muslims and Christians in The Gambia, called for a more hospitable, accommodating and humane attitude from all communities, so we expect a better approach towards the Church and community at large.