Live by the sword (A look at Trinidad & Tobago in C21st)

Let Your Light Shine

Things were relatively quite, for the first two to three years of the new millennium, on the compound at #1 A Mucurapo  Road.

It was business like normal.

Rebuilding the physical infrastructure of the compound was more or less completed.

In the Mosque an upstairs was built to accommodate the sisters, as the congregation of the Jamaat was still expanding.  The mosque in its original form could not hold the brothers, much less the sisters.

As their was hardly any sitting space for everyone.

The process of rebranding the image was still under way. The "bad boy" image was no more. Even though persons who would be considered, undesirables to the wider society would still be welcomed.

They were encouraged to leave that image behind and become productive members of their community. Most of them did in fact changed for the better. As the saying goes you cant save everyone.

The Imam could be heard quite often quoting from the Quran," They would ask for a light from your light".

So Let your light shine bright.

The year 2003 was marked with some sorrow as one of the brothers who changed his life around and was using his money to uplift his community was brutally gunned down on his farm by unknown assailants.

This senseless killing sent shock waves through the community, the Imam while conducting his funeral service, could not contain his grief anymore and cried as he spoke about the good that the brother had been doing.

Even through things were clam on the compound, in the country everybody seemed to be on edge.

The murder rate was quickly raising, as the year 2003 ended with 229 persons being murdered. The highest the country had ever seen in our history. At that time.

What was even more shocking, was the fact that it was the young afro Trinidadian males were killing each other.

It had hit home as nearly every Friday after Congregational prayers were over, their was a funeral on the Mosque.

This lead to the Imam encouraging the young African brothers, to maintain peace amongst the communities they lived in.

He could be heard saying, that they ( the older brothers of the community) fought with the "gun" so we( the younger brothers) could have peace to be educated.

In other words education was our way out of poverty. So take full advantage.