More Muslim groups take issue with Modi’s visit to T&T

Two more Mus­lim or­gan­i­sa­tions have raised con­cerns about Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di’s of­fi­cial vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a state­ment is­sued by its pres­i­dent, Mirza Ali-Mo­hammed, the Is­lam­ic Da’wah Move­ment yes­ter­day called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to raise the is­sue of Mus­lim dis­crim­i­na­tion in In­dia when she meets with Mo­di, who ar­rives in this coun­try to­day.

The group ref­er­enced a se­ries of poli­cies in­tro­duced un­der Mo­di’s Bharatiya Jana­ta Par­ty (BJP) gov­ern­ment, which have drawn in­ter­na­tion­al crit­i­cism, in­clud­ing the 2019 Cit­i­zen­ship Amend­ment Act. The Unit­ed Na­tions Of­fice of the High Com­mis­sion­er for Hu­man Rights pre­vi­ous­ly de­scribed the law as “fun­da­men­tal­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry” be­cause it fast-tracks cit­i­zen­ship for non-Mus­lim im­mi­grants from neigh­bour­ing coun­tries. The Is­lam­ic Da’wah Move­ment al­so cit­ed state­ments by the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Is­lam­ic Co­op­er­a­tion (OIC), which ac­cused In­dia of en­gag­ing in “sys­tem­at­ic prac­tices against In­di­an Mus­lims” and fos­ter­ing “a grow­ing spate of ha­tred and defama­tion of Is­lam.”

“In­dia is home to some two hun­dred mil­lion Mus­lims. Since In­dia’s in­de­pen­dence, Mus­lims have of­ten faced dis­crim­i­na­tion, prej­u­dice, and vi­o­lence, de­spite con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tions,” the group said.

“If Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­dress­es this burn­ing is­sue of Mus­lim dis­crim­i­na­tion with PM Mo­di, she can earn the re­spect of the Mus­lim pop­u­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Their con­cerns came one day af­ter the An­ju­man Sun­nat-ul-Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion (AS­JA) al­so urged Gov­ern­ment to speak “frankly and re­spect­ful­ly” with Mo­di about re­li­gious free­dom and the rights of mi­nori­ties in In­dia.

The Is­lam­ic Mis­sion­ar­ies Guild has al­so strong­ly con­demned Mo­di’s vis­it.

 Im­ti­az Mo­hammed, the pres­i­dent of the Is­lam­ic Mis­sion­ar­ies Guild and Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer of the Con­cerned Mus­lims of T&T, ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

 “To­day, we de­nounce the ac­tions of our Prime Min­is­ter for grant­i­ng a state vis­it to Mr Naren­dra Mo­di and for award­ing him Trinidad and To­ba­go’s high­est na­tion­al award. 

“He has la­belled Mus­lims as in­fil­tra­tors and, ac­cord­ing to many ex­perts, has in­cit­ed vi­o­lence against them.”

Mo­hammed added that In­dia’s main op­po­si­tion par­ty has al­so ac­cused Mo­di of us­ing di­vi­sive lan­guage that fos­ters Is­lam­o­pho­bia.

“His vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go is not sup­port­ed by the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty here,” he said.

He urged lead­ers to con­sult with var­i­ous sec­tors of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty be­fore is­su­ing in­vi­ta­tions to in­ter­na­tion­al lead­ers.

 Mean­while, traf­fic re­stric­tions have been placed in the cap­i­tal city of Port-of-Spain for the of­fi­cial State vis­it of Mo­di.

The re­stric­tions took ef­fect from 10 pm yes­ter­day and end at 10 pm on Fri­day, Ju­ly 4.

Park­ing is pro­hib­it­ed on:

Dock Road; Post Of­fice Road; and the west­ern side of the north­bound car­riage­way of Wright­son Road, be­tween South Quay and Dock Road.

On Fri­day, park­ing is pro­hib­it­ed from 4 am to 2 pm on St Vin­cent Street, be­tween Gor­don Street and In­de­pen­dence Square North; Sackville Street, be­tween Wright­son Road and St Vin­cent Street; Aber­crom­by Street, be­tween In­de­pen­dence Square North and Park Street; Knox Street, be­tween Aber­crom­by Street and Fred­er­ick Street; Hart Street; Duke Street, be­tween Fred­er­ick Street and Wright­son Road; Queen Jan­nelle Com­mis­siong Street, be­tween Fred­er­ick Street and Aber­crom­by Street.

On Tues­day, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Bar­ry Padarath said sev­er­al mem­o­ran­da of un­der­stand­ing be­tween T&T and In­dia will be signed dur­ing Mo­di’s vis­it.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Padarath said in­tense prepa­ra­tions were on­go­ing for the high-pro­file vis­it, which will in­clude dis­cus­sions that can boost de­vel­op­ment be­tween both coun­tries.

“We can ex­pect to hear more in the ar­eas of ICT and tech­nol­o­gy, the area of med­i­cine as it re­lates to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, in par­tic­u­lar, dial­y­sis and can­cer treat­ments. We can ex­pect to hear more about trade and agri­cul­ture. There is al­so some tech­ni­cal sup­port in terms of digi­ti­sa­tion.”

Padarath ex­plained that ef­forts are be­ing made to en­sure that the pro­posed part­ner­ships in key ar­eas will stand the test of time.

Asked about the mood ahead of the vis­it, Padarath replied in Hin­di, “bahut khub­surat,” which in Eng­lish means very beau­ti­ful. — With re­pot­ing by Sha­tri Boodan and Jesse Ramdeo