Sto­ry by SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The head of Ummah TT, The Mus­lim Fed­er­a­tion, has called for uni­ty among Mus­lims in Trinidad and To­ba­go, as the com­mu­ni­ty ob­serves Eid-ul-Fitr.

Ac­cord­ing to Imam Rasheed Karim, Mus­lims have a lot of pow­er in T&T but is not as ef­fec­tive as it can be as a force for change, be­cause the com­mu­ni­ty it­self is too di­vid­ed.

The Imam made the com­ments on Sun­day morn­ing at the Masjid ul Furqaan on Greenidge Street in Fe­lic­i­ty, Ch­agua­nas, where scaled down Eid cel­e­bra­tions took place.

“With uni­ty comes pow­er,” the Imam not­ed. “I want to let you all know that you have pow­er. The Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty in T&T, you have a lot of pow­er, but you have been mis­guid­ed. You have been mis­led and you do not un­der­stand your pow­er—you are di­vid­ed. I want to ask you—all our Mus­lim broth­ers in T&T, and sis­ters—let us all uni­fy. Let us be to­geth­er; let us not be di­vid­ed, and then you will see the supreme pow­er we have.”

Imam Karim said Mus­lims in T&T have shown their true grit by com­ing out in full force dur­ing the COVID-19 lock­down and as­sist­ing the down-trod­den in their com­mu­ni­ties. He said peo­ple must nev­er for­get that God is in con­trol.

“We have seen that for the past two months where mankind has been brought to their knees by the supreme pow­er of God almighty. We have to un­der­stand that God almighty has man­i­fest­ed to show mankind that noth­ing can be done with him­self.”

The Imam stat­ed that Mus­lims are the flag bear­ers of Is­lam and have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to por­tray the true Is­lam in the way they con­duct their lives and live with their fel­low man.

He ob­served that Eid cel­e­bra­tions had been scaled down be­cause of the cur­rent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and mem­bers of the Ja­maat were pray­ing at home.

Imam Karim said he had asked all mem­bers to dri­ve down to the mosque on Eid day, where they were giv­en gifts as a sign of uni­ty and cel­e­bra­tion.