JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

ASJA urges PM to repatriate citizens detained in Iraq, Syria

by

Otto Carrington
833 days ago
20230317
ASJA General Secretary Rahimool Hosein

ASJA General Secretary Rahimool Hosein

The An­ju­man Sun­nat ul Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion Inc of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AS­JA) has writ­ten to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, ap­peal­ing for him to look in­to the plight of T&T na­tion­als be­ing de­tained in de­ten­tion camps in Syr­ia and Iraq.

The two-page let­ter was signed by AS­JA’s Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, Rahi­mool Ho­sein, and de­liv­ered on Thurs­day.

While it was mak­ing a case for the repa­tri­a­tion of the af­fect­ed per­sons, who have been ei­ther im­pris­oned or kept in the camps due to their af­fil­i­a­tion with the in­ter­na­tion­al ter­ror­ist group ISIS, AS­JA said it holds no briefs, records, or files on any of the in­di­vid­u­als in those coun­tries. It al­so not­ed that ac­cord­ing to in­ves­ti­ga­tions over the years by AS­JA, none of the in­di­vid­u­als cur­rent­ly in those coun­tries were from or as­so­ci­at­ed with any masjid or ja­maat that is part of AS­JA.

In the let­ter, Ho­sein said, “We re­fer to our cor­re­spon­dences of 24th Jan­u­ary 2020 and March 2nd, 2023, as well as our press con­fer­ence held on March 6, 2023, re­gard­ing the mat­ter of in­di­vid­u­als de­tained in for­eign lands due to their in­volve­ment with ISIS. We wish to re­it­er­ate that the AS­JA, our ap­peal, mere­ly one of a hu­man­i­tar­i­an na­ture, is to urge the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go to ex­pe­dite and has­ten the process­es and pro­ce­dures to bring some mea­sure of clo­sure, one way or an­oth­er, to this long-stand­ing mat­ter.”

Ho­sein said AS­JA “is of the firm view that it is on­ly and sole­ly with the re­sources of the Gov­ern­ment, and the rel­e­vant min­istries and de­part­ments of gov­ern­ment, that any of these in­di­vid­u­als can be vet­ted and ver­i­fied as le­git­i­mate cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­clud­ing chil­dren born in refugee camps or on the bat­tle­field.”

He said on­ly the Gov­ern­ment could al­low the in­di­vid­u­als the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re-en­ter T&T’s shores and the sta­tus of these in­di­vid­u­als af­ter re-en­try was en­tire­ly at the dis­cre­tion of Gov­ern­ment.

“Our ap­peal at the re­cent press con­fer­ence was on hu­man­i­tar­i­an grounds, and we asked the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go to look care­ful­ly in­to ways that can bring some mea­sure of clo­sure to this is­sue based on the al­leged liv­ing con­di­tions of where these in­di­vid­u­als may be domi­ciled. AS­JA is stat­ing cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly that, based on in­ter­na­tion­al re­ports over the years, in­di­vid­u­als such as these who had vol­un­tar­i­ly left their re­spec­tive home coun­tries to vol­un­tar­i­ly join that so­ci­ety and ide­ol­o­gy cre­at­ed by ISIS, have been ex­posed to, and/or con­doned, and/or in­ter­act­ed with, and/or been in­volved in a so­ci­ety that is to­tal­ly apart, alien, and con­trary to the laws, cul­ture, so­cial prac­tices, liv­ing con­di­tions, and en­vi­ron­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

“De­spite our call for ex­pe­di­tious repa­tri­a­tion, AS­JA as­sumes no fi­nan­cial li­a­bil­i­ty in this ex­er­cise but can on­ly com­mit hu­man re­sources to­ward the spir­i­tu­al and re­li­gious en­light­en­ment of these in­di­vid­u­als away from the mis­guid­ed path they have cho­sen, once they have been of­fi­cial­ly cleared for in­ter­ac­tion with the gen­er­al pub­lic by the ex­perts and pro­fes­sion­als ap­point­ed by the rel­e­vant gov­ern­ment agency.”

Instagram


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Hardbargain Primary School’s Poolmatee Bachoo, right, receives a donation of books from Trinre’s human resource and administration manager Simone Aguilera-Hay.

Hardbargain Primary School’s Poolmatee Bachoo, right, receives a donation of books from Trinre’s human resource and administration manager Simone Aguilera-Hay.

Hardbargain Primary School’s Poolmatee Bachoo, right, receives a donation of books from Trinre’s human resource and administration manager Simone Aguilera-Hay.

Hardbargain Primary School’s Poolmatee Bachoo, right, receives a donation of books from Trinre’s human resource and administration manager Simone Aguilera-Hay.

Trinre donates books to Hardbargain Govt

20 hours ago
DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

Aripo treehouse showcases art and design

Yesterday
Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

‘Timeless’ golden music from Louis and the Lynx

Yesterday
Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo completes South Carolina steelpan residency

2 days ago