Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen Imam Sadiq al Razi says the time has come for heal­ing be­tween the Ja­maat and the coun­try.

He made the com­ment yes­ter­day at the Ja­maat’s Mu­cu­rapo Mosque, as he not­ed the Ja­maat will be part of the African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day pro­ces­sion to­day.

Al Razi, who was one of the 114 in­sur­rec­tion­ists in the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup, said just as coun­tries in World War II who are now al­lies were once en­e­mies, so too the coun­try should be with the Ja­maat.

“Why can’t we move on as a peo­ple and each one em­brace one an­oth­er? I think that is long over­due and most of the peo­ple who are ag­griev­ed by 1990, most of them un­der the ground based on the pas­sage of time,” al Razi said.

He said the Ja­maat has been “build­ing bridges” in the shad­ows, but there are those still want­i­ng to stoke the fire of an­i­mos­i­ty and reignite the flames of di­vi­sion and ha­tred. He said the Ja­maat will con­tin­ue to do good and keep at it un­til the good is recog­nised.

“All who don’t want to work with us will sit by and watch the train go­ing along. The train of progress is mov­ing along and at some point, they will ask for a ride.”

On the 34 an­niver­sary of the at­tempt­ed coup on Sat­ur­day (Ju­ly 27), so­cial ac­tivist Wen­dell Ever­s­ley re­peat­ed his call for the roll-out of rec­om­men­da­tions of the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup.

Asked about those who can’t for­give the Ja­maat be­cause they be­lieve there was no ret­ri­bu­tion for the deaths and de­struc­tion caused dur­ing the event, al Razi said this is be­cause the full sto­ry of 1990 is yet to be told.

“I have seen books writ­ten and I know, as an el­der, we need to put the record straight about what hap­pened. But that is a whole episode by it­self,” he said, adding that af­ter the full sto­ry is told, the pain in the hearts of some will leave.

Al Razi said part of the re­brand­ing of the Ja­maat is to ed­u­cate the pub­lic and one of the steps will be the role that Mus­lims played in the eman­ci­pa­tion of slaves. He said Bath Street in East Port-of-Spain was named af­ter a for­mer slave, Jonas Mo­hammed Bath, who pur­chased his free­dom and then those of oth­ers.

The Imam, who took over the Ja­maat three years ago af­ter Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, who led the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup died, said he had big shoes to fill but he was up to the task. He joked that Abu Bakr wore size 13 and he wears nine and just as they dif­fer in shoe sizes, they dif­fer al­so in lead­er­ship style.

Asked why the de­ci­sion had been made to re­join the African Eman­ci­pa­tion Day pro­ces­sion, the 69-year-old said it was part of the new fo­cus of the Ja­maat to not just change in­ter­nal­ly but show ex­ter­nal­ly that they are ready and will­ing to work with all who want bet­ter for the coun­try.

He stressed the Ja­maat’s vi­sion of recla­ma­tion is one of re­unit­ing the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty and then the Ja­maat with T&T.

Al Razi said most of the coun­try wants a peace­ful and crime-free coun­try to live in and the Ja­maat will be work­ing with those like-mind­ed peo­ple to bring about this. He said the Ja­maat will not be en­dors­ing any par­ties as an or­gan­i­sa­tion, but mem­bers are free to sup­port who­ev­er they wish.