Mem­bers of the Table­land AS­JA Ja­maat have been left dis­heart­ened over the re­cent van­dal­ism of their Masjid.

The ceil­ing at the back of the build­ing was dam­aged as crim­i­nals made an at­tempt to gain en­try in­to the mosque.

The in­ci­dent, how­ev­er, re­sult­ed in the mosque hav­ing to spend more than $4,000 to re­pair the ceil­ing. Some mem­bers have been left shak­en over the in­ci­dent.

Con­demn­ing the act yes­ter­day, Imam Fa­reed Mo­hammed re­called that last Thurs­day, they left the mosque some­time af­ter 9 am af­ter par­tic­i­pat­ing in prayer.

When they re­turned around noon the fol­low­ing day, he said they dis­cov­ered the PVC ceil­ing boards hang­ing, some on the ground and some in pieces. A neigh­bour re­port­ed hear­ing a loud noise af­ter 11 pm on Thurs­day but she dis­missed it as be­ing weath­er re­lat­ed be­cause there was a lot of light­ing. An­oth­er neigh­bour heard his dogs bark­ing.

Lament­ing the dis­re­gard and dis­re­spect for hu­man life and places of wor­ship, Imam Mo­hammed said theirs was not the on­ly place de­faced and dam­aged by the crim­i­nal el­e­ments. He said cit­i­zens are not on­ly be­ing robbed of their world­ly pos­ses­sions but their peace of mind, as they live in fear.

He added that in so­ci­ety to­day, when so much is tak­ing place, peo­ple are sup­posed to be their broth­er’s keep­er and look af­ter each oth­er’s wel­fare, but in­stead crim­i­nals are ter­ror­is­ing peo­ple.

He re­called that years ago un­der the charge of his fa­ther, Imam Sheik Nazrudeen Mo­hammed, who died from COVID-19 last year, the mosque was bro­ken in­to and the thieves made off with the DVR for their CCTV sys­tem.

How­ev­er, Mo­hammed in­tends to put mea­sures in place to safe­guard his mem­bers, in­clud­ing sourc­ing an­oth­er DVR.

Table­land po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

Over the last two weeks, at least two tem­ples, the Kali Ma­ta Tem­ple in Car­li Bay, Cou­va and Lakrani Ganesh Mandir in Pe­nal, were bro­ken in­to and des­e­crat­ed.

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Dr. Natalia Kanem Executive Director, UNFPA

Dr. Natalia Kanem Executive Director, UNFPA

Swami Prakashananda laddles dosa batter onto a tawa at Chinmaya Mission.

Swami Prakashananda laddles dosa batter onto a tawa at Chinmaya Mission.

Aurora Noguera-Ramkissoon and Natalia Kanem at UN Office, T&T.

Aurora Noguera-Ramkissoon and Natalia Kanem at UN Office, T&T.

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