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The puzzle of Islam
Posted: Wednesday, December 18, 2002

[A response from Davy de Verteuil to The puzzle of Islam dated Posted: Friday, December 6, 2002 in the Newsday Editorial]


IN THE NAME OF ALLAH MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL
As-salam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuh

First I'd like to make clear that there is no puzzle of Islam and perhaps a puzzle or more likely a state of confusion begins with you.

Your article: The puzzle of Islam dated Posted: Friday, December 6, 2002 in the Newsday Editorial reflects your lack of understanding of the Religion you so profess to speak dearly of, most glaringly you lack the fundamentals of history and for the most part speak not for Muslims in general but the skewed racist element that continue to play a double role in serving the colonial masters interest as indentured which perpetuated the diabolical strategy of divide and rule.

While Afro-Caribbean people attempts to return to Islam they were turned away by the traditional East Indian Muslim community which held sway by permission of the British lords that presided the slave era.

I re-called while attending a prayer at a makeshift mosque in Diego Martin we were made to know that as niggers 'slaves' we could not be Muslims. And I continue to hear that same saying for many years after.

Also Indian Muslim leaders often locked their little private masjids whenever Afro-Caribbean Muslims tried to enter for prayer some cases police were even called in.

Inter-marrying was strictly forbidden purely and openly on xenophobic grounds.

The envy of Slaves occupying the once useless swamp at No.1 Mucurapo Rd, only served to step-up the tempo with more hate and bigotry against Afro-Muslims.

Some of my worst experiences of racism came from Trinidad's Traditional Indian Muslims.

When Muslim converts suffered rejection from all sides of our society before any kind of hostility reciprocated from us the Muslims many years ahead of 1990, some of us literally shamefully begged for acceptance by ignoring even greeting with smiling faces and during all those years of scornful rejection and omission Muslim Clerics travel abroad to Muslim countries seeking funds in our name as it was customary that donations came in by the millions from wealthy Muslim countries and individuals for the purpose of spreading Islam and teaching new Muslims.

Eric William had the same back stabbers on his back when he decided to build the Junior Mucurapo secondary school.

We became enemy of the State No.1 but that was after Eric died and Chambers parted.

The French Creoles and the Indian Muslims who happily vacated the swamp could not stand to see that where the Honorable Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams who not only gave the land to the Muslims but also Preserved it for the (Afro-Trini) Muslims had also planned to build the Hasley Crawford Stadium and a foreshore Highway promptly appraising the value of the entire area.

Prior to which the traditional Indian Muslim community enjoyed annually state funds that was allocated for the major national denominational groups recognized by the Governors before the colonial masters left our shores which still continues up to today. They were too selfish to share these funds within the Afro Trini community. Just imagine one in every family returning to Islam in the east-west corridor.

Ministers and Police use to warn us of impending arrest and raids claiming orders from the top, provocation was rife and anything to stymied the resurgence and growth of Islam was top agenda.

Hostilities also increase when Mucurapo became the center of attraction as far as development was concern. Here it was a bunch of niggers as Kamal would put it occupying a prized piece of land in the middle of - also what was the catholic bigshots envy.


They bathe in ill-gotten gains they sent their children to Canada the US and England with funds that was intended for Afro-Trinidadians who never see a cent but experienced hate racial economical assault.

When Saudi Prince Bandar Sultan visited Trinidad in 1988 he was shocked beyond belief in seeing the swamp land that Prime Minister Eric Williams had given to the Muslims was still a swamp and at that time this was no fault of YAB stupid behavior we were really trying but as I reflect they were too powerful hence the anarchy on July 1990 and this is not an excuse.

Trinidadians need to wake up and take a look at the real world in which wars are not always provoked by ill-trained under-prepared ragtaged dissidents and the events that led to 1990 was trust on a cause by a greedy bunch of haters.

YAB should be despised now more than ever for his current links and courtship but for the events preceding 1990 he should be studied for love or for knowledge, which in my opinion will only serve to help Trinidad and Tobago.

We must know look at Venezuela as it was about 1990 Chavez took the same route- love him or hate him but there was reason real reason; justifiable or not is a matter of opinion even illusionary the same goes for Rafique Shah.

When and where else was Trinidad under any threat from Muslims and was it because the Muslims initiated such hostility or was it for the number of reasons stated herein?

Second to none Trinidad traditional Indian Muslim community was far more responsible for the events that led to 1990 than any other interest group in and outside of the country…No apologies! They connived and fermented the cause of a conflict that goes back to years of skullduggery bigotry and plain greed.

Bigotry, envy of prime property misrepresentation of new Muslims abroad and the mis appropriation of funds for the development of the Muslims that pioneered a vicious manipulation between the French Creole and the traditional Indian Muslim community that initiated hostility from the state.

I have little respect or forgiveness toward the Indian Muslims of Trinidad and I waste no time nor do I ever mince words in describing them to the rest of the Muslim world whom I share much experiences with since my departure from Trini shores.

For much of these reasons deprived Afro Trinidadians inculcate the easy street of crime, they weren't given a chance-all around there was discrimination.

Which of the ethnic grouping worked or can work as hard as the African Trini?

On the question of Terrorism, try not condescending to the lure of you are better than the others because the true story of terror revealed before your eyes will only belittle your knowledge. Terror is nothing new and Muslims as much as the Catholics of South and Central America, the Hindu lower Caste of India the Africans regardless of where they were suffered terrorism of indescribable horror.

There is no salvation in publishing unless you yourself reveal the true history and then make amends for your past. Much of the powers that be attempt to put the past behind them absolving itself from the responsibility they owe towards making up for the past.
But no single month of fasting "Ramadan" and swiping should anoint any of us with the right to condemn even the worst of villains especially when we are the creators of those villains.

I pray the day when we will all see the backs of our villains but I pray even harder when hypocrites do part from amongst us.

Don't use your pen to petrify Islam or Muslims nor the nature and cause of terrorism if you have not an inkling of the history and cause of terrorism.

It would have been better to wish everyone Id Mubarak in sincerity with a single card and not the so-called contribution you think you have made by writing this whole lot of ill-informed deceit and you should have kept it among your unrepentant traditional community that are miles from the real practices of Islam.

Indeed Yasin practices little Islam, as for Bin Laden I couldn't really say as he haven't been given a chance to speak and for the many more Muslims that suffer harsh oppression and many deprivations even by Muslim leaders who for the most part are the creation of the very audiences you are trying to please.



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