Rio Claro Imam Nazim Mohammed is singing praises to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley for his commitment to bringing back over 100 T&T nationals currently either held or imprisoned in Syria and Iraq.
Mohammed, who heads the Masjid Umar Khattab Jamaat, has a 58-year-old daughter, Aneesa Mohammed-Waheed, in Iraq currently serving a 20-year sentence with her three daughters Aidah, 23, Azizah, 32, and Sabirah, 29, for illegally entering the country.
The three granddaughters are in camps and prisons with their ten children.
Mohammed could not give the ages of the children or say how many are male or female.
“These children are young and have been going through a lot. We are hoping for them to come back home soon,” Mohammed told Guardian Media yesterday during a telephone interview.
Two weeks ago, Mohammed spoke about 15 of his family members—including his son, grandchildren and in-laws—who went to war-torn Syria and Iraq to become ISIS fighters, stating they are likely dead.
Since they secretly left T&T between 2015 and 2018 to join the extremist terrorist group, Mohammed has not received word from these relatives.
Checks by the International Red Cross into their whereabouts also came up empty-handed.
Mohammed fears his son Musab Mohammed, daughter-in-law Cassie Bissoon-Mohammed, granddaughter Sumiah, her husband Akeil and their-14-year-old son, Samir, are dead.
However, he insisted that these relatives left Trinidad unknown to him and he was also not an ISIS recruiter.
Responding to PM Rowley’s commitment to bring the detainees home, Mohammed, 82, said it was long overdue.
“I want to personally thank the Prime Minister for his decision to bring home these detainees who have been suffering abroad. I am so happy about what he has done. Allah will surely bless and reward him immensely.”
Mohammed said when someone frees a captive, they receive blessings. He said the news by Rowley was welcoming.
“All I can say is Alhamdulillah (praise to Allah)...and praise to the Prime Minister.”
He said the PM’s move also comes at the best time for the Muslim community— during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Last Monday, Rowley appointed former House speaker Nizam Mohammed to head a three-man committee to oversee the repatriation process which will involve several technical issues. The other two members of the committee are Islamic leader Kwesi Atiba and former ambassador Patrick Edwards.
Mohammed said he expects the repatriation process by the committee will take some time, given the issues they have to deal with.
“We don’t know how long the process would take. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well... Alhamdulillah. This is the best news the families of the detainees could have received.”
Mohammed said no member of the committee had contacted him yet but said he will wait on his turn to be interviewed.
“I am not going to rush things. Everything has to take its course. I don’t want to seem like I am pushing up myself.”
Still, he hopes that before the end of this year, those held in camps and prisons would return home to restart their lives.
Mohammed said while his greatest wish is to be reunited with his daughter, granddaughters and grandchildren, another is to meet his Lord and be in Paradise.
“If I don’t live to see them return home, we will meet in Paradise one day. We believe in the afterlife,” he said.
Pressed on if the Rio Claro community would embrace his relatives back into society, Mohammed said yes. He said the children would attend primary and secondary schools in Boos Village which are privately managed by them.
“The ten grandchildren would be able to attend these schools. They will get an education, which is key.”
Mohammed said he had accommodation for all of them at his home, stating he cannot turn his back on his flesh and blood.
Admitting he had not heard from his daughter and granddaughters in quite a while, he said, “Every time they call they would cry stating that they want to come back home. They wrote numerous letters to the authorities highlighting the conditions they are subjected to but never got a response. I don’t know why they were ignored.”
Mohammed said he has not reached out to his relatives to relay the good news.
“But soon enough, they will find out.”
Mohammed came under the radar in 2009 when he was interviewed by FBI agents prior to T&T hosting the Fifth Summit of the Americas.
The agents wanted to know if Mohammed was a threat to then-American president Barack Obama during his attendance at the Summit.
He then became a subject of interest to the T&T Police Service, who searched his mosque for arms and ammunition but came up empty-handed.