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March 12, 2006

Trinidad: Violence Leads To Crackdown On Muslim Group

We have reported extensively on the troubled saga of the Trinidadian Muslim group, Jamaat Al-Muslimeen, whose leader, 64-year old Yasin Abu Bakr is still awaiting trial. He is accused of terrorism, sedition, inciting larceny and breaching the peace, and in a separate case, he is also awaiting a retrial for a case in which he is accused of conspiring to have two former members of his group to be murdered on June 4, 2003 in Diego Martin.

Today's Trinidad Express reprints an article formerly printed in the Miami Herald, in which it states that the current government, the People's National Movement (PNM) has decided to crack down on the Jamaat-Al-Muslimeen as they are perceived to be encouraging a wave of crime on the island of Trinidad.

Earlier this month, the government sued Jamaat for $5 million for their part in a coup attempt which took place in 1990. This attempted coup which lasted a week, led by Bakr (shown above at the time of his arrest), was a bloody affair. With an estimated 200 Jamaat followers, he firebombed the police headquarters, hijacked the television headquarters and held parliament hostage for six days. 24 people died in the violence. The prime minister at the time, Arthur N.R. Robinson, was shot in the leg.

Abu Bakr and 114 followers from the Jamaat were first offered a prime ministerial pardon, which was then retracted, and after standing trial, had the case abandoned and charges dropped.

Abu Bakr, born Lennox Phillips, is a former police officer, who was educated in Canada, and took control of the Jamaat in the 1980s. After receiving no retribution for its part in the 1990 coup attempt, the group has made no effort to renounce violence, and appears to thrive by intimidation.

Last year, a series of bombs hit Trinidad, in and around the capital, Port of Spain. The first bomb hit on July 22, injuring 13 people, and the fourth and last bomb went off at a nightclub in the suburb of St James on Friday October 14, injuring 10 people.

Immediately after this last bombing, Yasin Abu Bakr and five other Jamaat members were arrested. He was released on October 16, and vehemently denied involvement in the bombings, which curiously did not continue after this.

On November 19, Lenville Small, the brother of a Jamaat member who is in prison for gun-running in Florida, was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the bombings, but he was later released without charge.

By this time, Yasin Abu Bakr (pictured, left) was in already in custody. He was arrested on November 7 and charged at Port of Spain Magistrates on Thursday November 10 with incitement, sedition and extortion. These charges related to his Friday sermon, held at his Mucurapo Road Mosque on November 4, which celebrated Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.

During the sermon, he had said that members of the Muslim community must pay his Jamaat group must pay a tithe, or "zakat" or there would be "bloodshed" and "war". On November 22 an additional charge of terrorism was added to the list against him.

Following Bakr's arrest on November 7, army and police arrived at the Jamaat al Muslimeen compound and bulldozed their way in, flattening Bakr's office. Inside they found a rifle, a hand grenade and 500 rounds of ammunition.

But the group's violent activities did not stop with Bakr's detention. On Friday December 22, two members of the Jamaat were arrested in their home, where officers also discovered a large bomb, which was being packaged and primed at the time of the raid. The two Jamaat members had plane tickets ready to leave the island after setting off the Christmas surprise.

The groups links with gang crime on the island have already been noted at Western Resistance. On January 3 we reported that Andre "Baldhead" Bynoe, aka Rasheed Abdul Karim, was shot dead. Well known to the police, Bynoe had been one of the original coup members.

On February 19, Zaffar Ali, the son of Hassan Ali, a prominent leader of the Jamaat, was shot dead at La Horquetta, Arima, in a killing which appears to have gangland connections. His father had not reported the killing, which suggests he had intentions of meting out his own justice to members of the "G-Unit", the gang which is suspected of shooting Zaffir Ali.

Today's Trinidad Express article, written by Joe Mozingo, states that many on Trinidad believe that the Jamaat al Muslimeen is connected with the recent soaring of violence on Trinidad and Tobago. Last year, 380 people were killed, and 70 were kidnapped for ransom on the islands, home to a population of 1.3 million, only 10% of whom are Muslim.

The fear of this crime wave is now affecting tourism, a staple of the islands' economy, and now two high-tech blimps regularly patrol over Port of SPain, recording activity on the streets below. Trinidad is the largest supplier of liquified natural gas to the United States, so the FBI and the Miami-based US Southern Command take a keen interest in the current situation.

There are several hundred members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, with more individuals involved in the web as supporters. Many of the core members of the group received paramilitary training in Libya, under Colonel Gadaafi.

The current prime minister, Patrick Manning, courted the Jamaat during his election campaign in 2002, and afterwards offered the Jamaat land which had been under dispute as a reward. This land was adjacent to the Mucurapo road compound, but in the face of public opposition, the offer was withdrawn.

The Jamaat is said to have many links with a scheme called the Unemployment Relief Programme which is officially designated to create employment, but has long been associated with political patronage and corruption. As Unversity of the West Indies professor Selwyn Ryan, author of The Muslimeen Grab for Power says: "I think the government is trying to disengage, but it's not that easy."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 12, 2006 2:58 PM

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