PORT-OF-SPAIN – The firing of talk show host Fazeer Mohammed has angered the Muslim community, forcing it to break its silence over what it claimed were months of discrimination against them by the People’s Partnership Government.
An emergency meeting was convened Tuesday night at the Islamic centre in Kelly Village, where around 50 representatives from various Islamic groups throughout the country were in attendance.
The meeting was chaired by Imtiaz Mohammed, president of the Islamic Guild of the Caribbean and South America, and chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Muslim community.
Mohammed, on behalf of his Muslim peers, condemned the removal of Mohammed (Fazeer) from the programme First Up, which is broadcast on state-owned CNMG. He added that, should their calls fall on deaf ears, the Muslim community would demonstrate later this week when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar returned from the United States.
“I condemn the action taken by CNMG and its executive.
I condemn the action of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Suruj Rambachan, in the way he conducted himself in his line of questioning with Fazeer. It was irrelevant and had nothing to do with the substance of the interview,” Mohammed (Imtiaz) said.
Mohammed (Fazeer) was fired from CNMG on Saturday in what CEO Ken Ali has said was a cost-cutting measure. The dismissal followed an argument with Foreign Affairs Minister Rambachan about Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar being in a leadership position, on the First Up programme last Thursday. (Trinidad Express)
