Local Muslim groups will hold emergency meetings this week to discuss reports that T&T Muslims have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) in their current jihadist war in Iraq and Syria.
Isis, now also known as the Islamic State, has been paying US$1,000 a day to Muslims who join the terrorist group’s fight, which some locals believe is one of the lures for Trinis. Muslims from other countries have been joining the campaign and in a video last month highlighting the killing of a US citizen in the fighting, CNN featured a segment with two Isis fighters believed to have Trinidadian links.
One of the fighters was identified as Abu Abdurahman al-Trinidadi, in an apparent reference to his Trini heritage. Isis has already claimed responsibility for beheading several hostages — American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British national Alan Henning and Scottish aid worker David Haines. In an interview yesterday, president of the Trinidad Muslim League Nasser Mustapha said he was shocked that locals were being lured to join Isis. “They are using our religion for their misguided aims. Scholars have written a lot about this but joining Isis is not the way to paradise. These fighters are taking things out of the proper context and using it for their misguided aims,” he said.
Mustapha said people were joining Isis because of ignorance. He added: “I am very shocked to know that Trinidadians could be involved in this. “It is very unfortunate that we have reached to this stage. I am praying for them to return to sanity, balance and objectivity. People have lost their direction by supporting those who are involved in these barbaric things. I pray for them to regain their sanity.” Mustapha said he would hold a meeting later this week to discuss the latest development in which two videos were posted on the internet, allegedly showing fighters with T&T links involved in the Isis conflict. Saying the TML is “definitely not in support of what the Isis is doing,” Mustapha said this would have a long-term effect on the reputation of local Muslims. “In our society Muslims enjoy a fairly good relationship with people in our communities. So far people have exhibited a fair amount of tolerance and understanding,” Mustapha added.
He said he did not think the Government should ban locals from travelling to the Middle East as a result of that. “People go for there for legitimate reasons, like business or studies. There should not be a ban but more careful verification of people who are travelling,” he noted. Mustapha also expressed support for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s co-sponsoring of the US resolution against terrorism and Isis at the recent United Nations Security Council meeting in New York. President of the Islamic Missionaries Guild Imtiaz Mohammed also urged locals to stay away from terrorist groups like Isis. Having visited high-risk cities on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mohammed said most people in the Middle East wanted peace, and if Muslims wanted to go there it should be to bring peace, not war.
“Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Unto Him) has forbidden women and children from going to the battlefield, so to take your family to Syria is going against the words of the Prophet,” Mohammed said. “I would urge all Muslims to not get involved in this fight. Do not go to Syria. We don’t understand what Isis’s intentions are, so do not join.” Meanwhile, president of the Anjuman Sunnat ul Jamaat Association, Yacoob Ali, said his executive would also meet this weekend to discuss the latest development. He said while the situation was worrisome, he did not want to comment until the issues were discussed.
AG: T&T not immune
Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said yesterday it was impossible to verify whether the Muslims linked to Isis in the recent video were indeed of Trinidadian heritage. “While the authenticity of the videos cannot be established, it cannot be ignored nor discounted,” Ramlogan said. However, he said, T&T had already suffered from the attacks of terrorists. “We have had bombings in Port-of-Spain, shots being fired at President Noor Hassanali’s car, the July 1990 insurrection and the conviction of Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for joining a failed plot to firebomb John F Kennedy Airport in 2007.”
He said T&T is also not immune to the effects of terrorism. “Silence is not an option except for a weak leader like Dr Keith Rowley,” Ramlogan said. He challenged Rowley to write a letter to US President Barack Obama saying why he did not support the co-sponsoring of the US security resolutions against foreign terrorist fighters. Rowley, however, has said he did not challenge T&T’s support of the resolution but rather the open manner in which PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar did so at the UN, saying he believed it would open T&T nationals at home and abroad to possible reprisals from Isis fighters.
More on videos
Two videos believed to show Trinidadian members of ISIS have been circulating online since last month. One video, entitle, “21 plus... Graphic and Disgusting...Foreign terrorists in Syria playing with the head of a Syrian citizen after they beheaded him,” purports to show Islamic insurgents playing with the head of a decapitated man in Syria. It features a man speaking in what appears to be a Trinidadian accent giving a ball-by-ball account of what is transpiring as the video was being shot.
The second was posted by Isis media arm Al-Hayat on August 2, titled “Eid greeting from the land of Khilafah.” This video sought to invite international Muslims to join the self-proclaimed caliphate. One Isis fighter, who identified himself as Abu Abdurahman al-Trinidadi, encouraged Muslims to join the organisation. Al-Trinidadi is standing next to another man also believed to be Trinidadian and both men are fully armed while carrying children on their shoulders.