Muslim gangs not about Islam

Spoken word poet and NGO founder Derron Sandy said Muslim gang warfare was "shrouded in pious holiness" but had nothing to do Islam.

"The uprising with the Muslim gang and Rasta gang has nothing do with Islam or Rastafarian."

He was speaking Monday at the media launch of The Quarry Foundation, Little Fire: A Project to Counter Violence and Extremism held at Maloney Public Library.

Sandy, foundation president, said young men were being brainwashed to join these gangs and some were leaving the Rasta City gang to join the Mulsim gang because it was a "holy way." He added that he separated the Muslim gang with Islam totally.

Sandy said he knew a family in Maloney where four members left this country to become foreign terrorist fighters and 75 per cent of them died in warfare overseas.

"One of the young men was not a bad boy, was an upcoming footballer but different things drive extremist behaviour."

He said there were psychological and philosophical factors that led to this behaviour and this was why the Little Fire programme, a theatre and art intervention at Maloney Government Primary School, was focused on teaching how much self-worth the youths had without being in a gang.