Kamla: Govt making Muslims the enemy

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Government was making local Muslims the enemy and her party will not allow the PNM to target the Islamic brotherhood. She was speaking during the UNC’s Monday Night Forum held at Don Miguel Hindu primary school in San Juan.

She referred to the detention of 15 people for a reported terror plot to disrupt Carnival and questioned whether the “whole charade” of the detentions were meant to distract people from all the wrongs taking place in the governance of the country.

She said one of the techniques of persuasion was to identify an enemy and spend your life knocking them down. She said the PNM’s attempts to blame Kamla, the Opposition and others were not working. “So identify the enemy. Who is their enemy,” she asked the crowd. “Muslims”, was the response. “And we must never let them get away with that. We must never let them get away with targeting the Islamic brotherhood in Trinidad and Tobago. Because we would have failed in our duty of upholding the rights of every citizen in this country. I do not support terrorism in any form. None of us here do.”

She said the faith and teachings of Islam are for peace and brotherhood. “But as in everything else there is good and there is not so good. There are those who will be extremists and we must the extremists down. Those are the real terrorists. But not every person of Islamic faith is a terrorist and not every terrorist is of Islamic faith. Always remember that as we go about our business side by side.”

During her address she also pointed out that TV6 Morning Edition host Fazeer Mohammed spoke about his uncle’s house being shot at and broken down by police and it was the wrong house.

Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan, in his remarks earlier, said the PNM continues to blame the previous UNC administration for everything. “And when all hell breaks loose, you hold a couple Muslims.” Khan said that after the detentions Government was now asking to have meetings with Muslim leaders. He said this was tantamount to a man beating beating his wife, saying sorry and then beating her again.

“You walk into a Muslim house, beat them up. Then on Monday you say you are sorry, let’s meet the leaders.” Khan said the PNM is serious about making amends to the Muslim community, they should reinstate Nafessa Mohammed as an advisor to the Office of the Prime Minister. Mohammed was fired from the position after a Facebook post about the detention of her Tariq Mohammed, her cousin. “My name is Khan...I am a Muslim and I am no terrorist,” Khan said.