MUST READ: SPOTLIGHT ON TRINIDAD & TOBAGO'S JAMAAT AL-MUSLIMEEN

Spotlight on Trinidad and Tobago's Jamaat al-Muslimeen

The recent allegations of a foiled plot to attack New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport by suspected Islamist extremists with ties to the Caribbean have raised concerns about the spread of radical Islam among the region's sizeable Muslim community. Early reports link the suspects to Trinidad and Tobago's Jamaat al-Muslimeen (Muslim Association, JAM), a radical Islamist group with a history of political militancy and violence. Russell M. Defreitas, 63, a U.S. citizen and resident of New York City who was born in Guyana, was once employed at the airport as an airline cargo handler. He is a Sunni Muslim convert of Afro-Guyanese descent. As the alleged mastermind behind the conspiracy, Defreitas has not held a steady job since 1995 and relied on social security payments and working odd jobs to survive. He had only $50.70 in his name at the time of his arrest (Trinidad & Tobago Newsday, June 7). His alleged accomplices included Afro-Guyanese Muslim convert Abdel Kadir, 55, born Michael Seaforth. Kadir converted to Sunni and later Shiite Islam and served as an imam in Guyana. A civil engineer by training, he once served as a member of Guyana's parliament and the mayor of the town of Linden. Kadir also studied theology in Iran in the 1990s, where he met and befriended Muhammed Hassan Abrahemi, an Iranian Shiite cleric who would later head Guyana's International Islamic College of Advanced Studies. Abrahemi made headlines in Guyana when he was abducted and murdered in 2004 (Terrorism Monitor, July 27, 2006). Kadir was reportedly preparing to attend an Islamic conference in Iran at the time of his arrest (Stabroek, June 3).

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Pertinent Links:

1) Spotlight on Trinidad and Tobago's Jamaat al-Muslimeen