PM to Imams: MUSLIMS, REJECT 'MUSLIMS'

LAMENTING the bloodshed caused by warfare between "Rasta City" and "Muslims" gangs, Prime Minister Dr Rowley has called on the nation's Muslim community to reject and condemn all gangs especially the so-called "Muslims."

He challenged Imams and Muslim leaders to leave their respective comfort zones and publicly reject the actions of criminals operating under the banner of the “Muslims.”

Rowley was on Saturday, the host to a cross-section of Imams who gathered at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's for a national Eid-ul-Fitr function. He delivered a hard-hitting address against young men misusing the term “Muslim” as an identity for gang warfare. He challenged the Rastafarian movement as well to do likewise.

With Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith present, Rowley said statistics showed that the majority of murders of young men in TT, were from gunshots emanating from gang warfare between the “Muslims” and “Rasta City” factions.

Griffith’s job as commissioner, the prime minister said, is most difficult given such a wave of violence for which TT is too small to tolerate.

“We know the circumstances we face of violence in our society, to the extent that hardly a day passes when someone is not killed by someone else. Our statistics show such senseless violence are confrontation between two groups of people, one calling themselves ‘Muslim’, the other ‘Rasta City.’ And because of what they call themselves, the solution to their co-existence, is murder.”

The function was chaired by Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein and it was dedicated to the Imam of the ASJA Mucurapo Street, San Fernando mosque, Mushtaq Sulaimani, who died in Pakistan in May. Sulaimani and Rowley were said to be close friends.

All of the country’s mainstream Muslim organisations were represented including Yasin Abu Bakr of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, Taulib Searles, Imam of the Enterprise Community Mosque and Islamic Home For Children chairman Shaheed Mohammed.

Reiterating his clarion call, Rowley told the packed Diplomatic Centre hall which also included Cabinet members, that "Muslims" killing “Rastas City" and vice versa, is a cancer TT can no longer endure, since members of these gangs, so named, are least concerned about the tenets of Islam and the Rastafarian movement respectively.

Those who claim to be “Muslim”, believe they have to kill a “Rasta”, Rowley said, stressing again that TT must stem this wanton bloodshed under the label of “Muslim” and “Rasta.”

Rowley challenged mainstream Muslim organisations. “This is a matter that needs the involvement and intervention of you the leaders of the various communities. I call on this gathering to produce from it some persons or person who are leaders, who will walk out of their comfort zone carrying the teaching of the Qu’ran to those who claim to be “Muslims” in TT, and who are engaging in such crimes.

"Our young people have gone astray. You the leaders of the Muslim community, you the leaders of the Rastafarian community, come out and identify and reject this misdirection of young people.

To the members of the "Muslims", Rowley said, "I call on you, those who are acting as “Muslims”, the Qu’ran says otherwise.”

Former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed, speaking to National Security Minister Stuart Young during a break for the late afternoon prayer, told him that the prime minister’s call must be acted on and that he (Young) is welcome to host a gathering of Muslim leaders.

Earlier during the function, Rowley also presented tokens to the country's top SEA students for 2019, Siri Vadlamudi, Megan Ramoutar and Manasseh Mohammed, who placed first, second and third, respectively.