Countries
Gambia
Also Known As Gambian
Africa
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
The Gambia is one of the most densely Muslim countries in West Africa, close to 96 per cent Sunni with a small Ahmadi community, set against a Christian minority of roughly four per cent who are mostly Roman Catholic, the two communities sharing family ties across religious lines closely enough that intermarriage and mixed households are unremarkable. The constitution protects freedom of religious choice so long as it does not infringe the rights of others or the national interest, and it explicitly bars the establishment of a state religion and the formation of political parties organized around religious affiliation, a secular guarantee the country has tested directly: in December 2015 President Yahya Jammeh declared the Gambia an Islamic republic by decree, and the declaration was formally reversed after Jammeh's 2017 removal from office, restoring the secular constitutional order intact. The Supreme Islamic Council and the Gambia Christian Council maintain a standing interfaith relationship that both government officials and outside diplomats have leaned on directly to defuse local tensions, most visibly during a period of friction between Muslim and Christian residents in the Bakau and Tallinding areas.
Facts
Law and State
Establishment StatusDeclared Not Established 1 Apostasy or Blasphemy LawThe criminal code outlaws insult to religion, disturbing religious assemblies, and uttering words with intent to wound religious feelings, including destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship or a sacred object with intent to insult a religion. Conviction carries a fine, imprisonment of up to two years, or both. The law is rarely invoked and has produced no high-profile prosecution in recent years. 1 Status
Legal StatusThe constitution protects freedom of religious choice so long as it does not infringe the rights of others or the national interest, bars the establishment of a state religion, and prohibits political parties organized around religious affiliation; President Yahya Jammeh declared the Gambia an Islamic republic by decree in December 2015, a declaration formally reversed after his removal from office in 2017, restoring the secular constitutional order. 1 Demographics
Religious CompositionAbout 96 per cent Muslim, mostly Sunni with a small Ahmadi community, and about 4 per cent Christian, mostly Roman Catholic (US Department of State, International Religious Freedom Report). 1 Government
Government Type Sovereignty StatusSovereign UN member state 2 Established Year Location
Learn More
Religion and History in the Gambia
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Gambia is one of the most densely Muslim countries in West Africa, close to 96 per cent Sunni with a small Ahmadi community, set against a Christian minority of roughly four per cent who are mostly Roman Catholic. The two communities share family ties across religious lines closely enough that intermarriage and mixed households are unremarkable, a closeness that has helped keep interfaith relations comparatively calm in a country whose religious demographics might otherwise suggest more friction than exists in practice.
The Supreme Islamic Council and the Gambia Christian Council maintain a standing interfaith relationship that both government officials and outside diplomats have leaned on directly to defuse local tensions, most visibly during a period of friction between Muslim and Christian residents in the Bakau and Tallinding areas. That institutionalized cooperation between the country's two main religious bodies gives the Gambia a model of interfaith coordination that goes beyond the ordinary constitutional guarantee of religious freedom into active, standing dialogue.
The Gambia's Reversed Islamic Republic Declaration
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Gambia's constitution protects freedom of religious choice so long as it does not infringe the rights of others or the national interest, and it explicitly bars the establishment of a state religion and the formation of political parties organized around religious affiliation. That secular guarantee was tested directly in December 2015, when President Yahya Jammeh declared the Gambia an Islamic republic by decree, overriding the constitutional bar on establishment by executive action rather than through any amendment process.
The declaration was formally reversed after Jammeh's 2017 removal from office, restoring the secular constitutional order intact rather than leaving Jammeh's decree as a lasting change to the country's legal architecture. The episode stands as a clear case of the gap between a constitution's text and a government's practice: the bar on establishing a state religion held on paper throughout Jammeh's declaration, and it was the political transition, not any court ruling, that ultimately restored it in fact.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Gambia directly: "of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v."
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.