Trinidad Express JAMAAT-AL-MUSLIMEEN leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, in an interview with police officers seven years ago, said his sermon on the collection and distribution of Zakaat during Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations in 2005 was based on theology.
This evidence formed part of the testimony of Inspector Christopher Holder, who charged Bakr with communicating a statement having seditious intention, two counts of inciting to demand with menaces with intent to steal and endeavouring to provoke a breach of the peace.
Bakr, 70, of La Puerta, Diego Martin, is on trial before Justice Mark Mohammed and a nine-member jury with six alternates in the Third Criminal Court at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain.
Holder’s testimony relating to the interview, conducted with Bakr on November 8, 2005, was read into evidence to the jury yesterday by Mohammed. The charges were laid by Holder on November 9, 2005 after receiving instructions from then Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson.
During the sermon, recorded by CNC 3 cameraman Mano Ragbir at the Jamaat’s Mucurapo Road, St James mosque on November 4, 2005, Bakr told his followers that Zakaat (similar to tithes) was designed by the Muslim prophet Muhammad for the purpose of eradicating poverty within the Muslim community.
He said the Muslims in Trinidad were going about the collection and distribution of Zakaat in the wrong way and not in accordance with Allah’s (God’s) instructions.
Bakr told the congregation that Allah promised to provide for them and their children.
“How come you are poor ?” Bakr asked.
“You either doing something that you not supposed to do, or you not doing something what you are supposed to do, or somebody has taken your sustenance, in which case you go and take it back”
Bakr said the nation’s wealth, derived from the natural resources provided by Allah for all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, was not being equally shared.
“If somebody takes something that belongs to you and they do not want to give it back to you, then it is your duty, in the Quran (Muslim holy book), by the support of Allah, to take it back from them. It is yours and somebody took it away from you…”
Bakr said Prophet Muhammad used to designate people to go and collect Zakaat.
“The Muslims in this country, they making joke because I don’t know who we have in this community (who) could send anybody to collect any Zakaat from these so-called Muslims who rich. So that is why I’m saying now, we going to put it in place. And I could foresee a war. I am not serious. Listen to what I am saying. I am dead serious.
“There is going to be a big war in the Muslim community—a real war. Lives may be lost but there is going to be a war in the Muslim community, come next year, about the collection and distribution of Zakaat.”
Bakr said all rich Muslims would have to pay the Zakaat at the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen into a Zakaat fund.
In an interview with Ragbir after the sermon, Bakr explained that he would have attempted to meet with other Muslim leaders in order to arrive at a consensus on how to deal with the Zakaat issue.
Jurors have been told to return to court on Thursday to facilitate the hearing of legal arguments in their absence.