Imam warns Rowley

A WELL-KNOWN imam has warned Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to make peace with Muslims or lose the next general election.

Imam Rasheed Karim of the Felicity Muslim Organisation said Rowley must stop antagonising Muslims, particularly along the East-West Corridor, where a large percentage of African Muslims live.

Last week, at a political meeting in Barataria, Rowley in referring to the gun find at the Masjid-ul-Muttaqeen mosque in Cunupia said, “Whenever credible information about arms, ammunition or lawlessness come to the attention of the security services, those agencies are duty bound to intervene, regardless of where the items are sequestered or who is involved.”

The prime minister said it did not matter whether these places belonged to any particular religion, as the law applied to all denominations.

But interviewed yesterday, an angry Karim pointed out it was the administrators of the mosque who called police and that the mosque is a public place where hundreds pass through.

He accused Rowley of exploiting the situation to cast blame on all Muslims and by so doing, planting the seeds of Islamophobia and stereotyping to make all Muslims appear lawless.

“Rowley, make peace with your voters. What about those who do not have guns? They trying to justify the raids they made prior to Ramadan. It have plenty black voters in the East-West Corridor who are Muslims, who does vote PNM,” Karim warned.

He added there are at least 40 to 50 masjids from Carenage to Sangre Grande owned by black Muslims. Karim claimed what is currently taking place in the country is similar to what occurred in the Middle East. “It’s the exact same thing they doing here, antagonising and fuelling the fire and not showing any empathy...only blowing everything out of proportion.”

He claimed some people are now saying “police should raid all mosques and that the only good Muslim is a dead one.”

Karim called for peace and harmony and for people to be tolerant of each other. He said some believers are now scared to say they are Muslims.

He said Rowley should put measures in place so all citizens could feel safe when they go to pray.

“He is failing drastically in that area. He is taking advantage of the innocent law-abiding Muslims in this country,” Karim charged.