Former Muslim detainee says women cannot be leaders

Ashmead Mohammed - Newsday photo

The Newsday newspaper on Wednesday quoted former detainee Ashmead Mohammed as saying women cannot take up leadership roles in State affairs.

Mohammed is one of 16 men who had been detained during the state of emergency on suspicion of being connected with a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three cabinet ministers.

All of the detainees were released at the end of the emergency Monday night. Police are continuing investigations into the alleged plot. The paper said it interviewed Mohammed in the gallery of his home at Southern Main Road, La Romaine.

It said Mohammed expressed the view that his arrest was linked to a "carefully orchestrated to put the Muslim community under siege."

He added, "Is one thing the Prime Minister cannot accept about the position women should hold. This is clearly stated in the Islamic law, that man is the leader."

He explained: “It is not about me, I did not say this, but is what Allah has said. And he does not accept it and he is the authority. Allah says clearly that women cannot take up leadership roles in State affairs. But he said they could assist."

Mohammed suggested that the flooding that Trinidad & Tobago has expereinced since Persad-Bissessar came to office is proof that women were not destined to take up leadership positions.

“If the Prime Minister has a problem, she should take it up with Allah, not the Muslims of the country...We don’t have a problem with her being the Prime Minister. The law is the law and we abide by it. I am not Allah. If you have a problem with what the Koran says don’t take it out on us,” Mohammed said.

Mohammed's interpretation of the Koran is in conflict with prominent Muslim scholars.

The Koran stresses the equality of women and men before God in terms of their religious duties and places them "under" the care of men. The Muslim holy book explains that men and women are equal "in creation and in the afterlife", but not identical. 

According to one interpretation of the scriptures: "One person does not come before the other, one is not superior to the other...A woman is not created for the purpose of a man. Rather, they are both created for the mutual benefit of each other.