The response by devotees of the Jai Kali Maa Mandir in Carli Bay to the desecration of their place of worship on Thursday night is an excellent example of maturity and patience in the face of provocation.
It is one thing to wake up to your holy place being vandalised, but when it’s done with the markings of verses from another religion meant to condemn your own faith, it becomes a different type of aggression entirely.
The devotees, however, chose to react by turning up at their temple the next day and continuing their singing of devotional songs while worshipping outside.
These types of acts, as citizens well know, don’t usually end well in other countries.
But as the most multi-racial, multi-religious country in the region, T&T has maintained a beautiful balance of religious tolerance that can be held up as an example across the globe.
While we have positive behaviours like these devotees to thank for this, they having chosen the high road rather than action that could foster further discord, we as a nation must condemn actions that seek to disrupt our religious tolerance.
From the face of it, this was an attempt to hammer one religious view upon another. The scripture painted on the mandir, Exodus 20:3-4, comes from one of the 10 commandments that God gave to Moses, which speaks against having any other Gods other than him.
Yet, while the text is taken from the Christian Bible, many Christians have argued that this form of action is in no way a true reflection of the love and peace that Jesus Christ promoted and is at best a fanatical approach by some misguided person or people.
Religion aside, it is against the law of Trinidad and Tobago.
Section 7 of the Equal Opportunity Act forbids any act that “is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of persons” and “which is done with the intention of inciting gender, racial or religious hatred.”
Our National Anthem, too, promotes an equal place for every creed and race in T&T and tolerance is one of our three watchwords.
This act, therefore, goes against everything we ascribe to as a people.
The fact that it comes so closely on the heels of other attacks on religious houses of worship - including the desecrations of a Hindu temple in Carapo and the St Francis Roman Catholic Church in Belmont - suggests that a more forceful response is needed.
The Inter-Religious Organisation, for example, has been surprisingly silent on this and other recent attacks and little too has been said by our leaders.
How can either the IRO or our politicians demand public confidence when matters that threaten the heart of our unity go without response?
With the fasting and prayers ahead of Divali that will forerun the Christmas season, we must not allow religious fanatics the space to promote their criminal behaviour.
The patience and maturity we’ve seen by the devotees, in this case, is laudable, but law enforcers must find and make examples of the perpetrators, as an affirmation of how jealously we guard and protect our religious multiplicity.