Daurius Figueira

Jihad in Trinidad and Tobago, July 27, 1990 Daurius Figueira

On July 27, 1990 a miltant Islamic organization launched an attempted coup d' etat premised upon a hostage situation to remove a democratically elected government from power in Trinidad and Tobago West Indies. This work focuses on the central issue of a Muslim minority in the West and its varied attempts to interact with a non-Muslim society on a daily basis. The work would present the ravages of black on black racism upon the Muslim communities of Trinidad and Tobago resulting in a divided community on the basis of race. Secondly, the work examines the influence of various discourses on the Muslim community of Trinidad and Tobago, especially the return to Islam by the Afro-Trinidadians and the development of a militant Islamic discourse which insisted that liberation for especially Afro-Trinidadians and Tobagonians was only found within the ambit of Islam. Finally, the work examines the impact of the illicit drug trade upon the relations between the then government and the Jamaat al Muslimmeen given the Muslimeen's assault upon the illicit drug trade in Trinidad immediately preceding July 27, 1990.