Leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr yesterday denied knowledge of death threat letters to Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and PNM senator Fitzgerald Hinds. In an interview yesterday, Bakr said police interviewed him about the death threat letters. He said during the interview, he asked the police for a copy of the letter. Bakr said he asked the police to see the letter, but "they had no letter to show me. "They (the police) trying to drag us (the Jamaat) into the mess...We are out of that and we remain oblivious to what is going on," he said. "I will tell you what I told the police officers...that I would not like to be dragged into this mess. "The leadership of the Jamaat will not be pulled into it by trick or otherwise."
The letter, police claimed, stated that the days of the two Opposition members were numbered and they should step down from the Opposition as they were blocking the success of the PNM party. "Somebody signed the letter and said Bakr and other members knew about it," the Jamaat leader said. "Manning (former prime Minister Patrick Manning) give me more case than Solo. "What I want to put an albatross on my back for?...That is the facade." He said if the Jamaat were going to do something, they would not write letters. "If we want to do something, we do it," Bakr said. "We don't talk, talk and talk like a set of parrots and talking how we not hearing you. "What that have to do with me?" he asked.
He further quoted the Bible book of Deuteronomy that speaks about sins. "In Deuteronomy, the Jews would put a ram and write the sins and offer it up and let it go in the wilderness," Bakr said. "The Jamaat is the scapegoat...They always come to the Jamaat, and say I know about that." He said the Jamaat al Muslimeen was being used as a "scapegoat" after he was questioned by the police on the issue.