Dear Editor,
The APNU+AFC coalition must be commended for passing a motion in the National Assembly honouring the late former PNCR parliamentarian, Abdul Kadir, describing him as “a great man, a stalwart, a bold and courageous man”. Indeed he was. Kadir, a civil engineer by training and profession, was also a scholar of Islamic History, Jurisprudence and Theology, particularly in the Shia tradition. He was among a tiny minority of Muslim scholars in Guyana who understood the importance of contextualization when reading the Qur’an and not only interpreting, but decoding the verses in a world far beyond the sands of 7th Century Afrabia.
Secondly, Kadir was no “terrorist”. I honestly believe that Kadir was the victim of an entrapment put in place by foreign agencies for their own nefarious objectives, in collusion with certain dubious regional characters who are yet to be touched. Kadir was a firm opponent of the deviant teachings of Wahhabism that emanated in Saudi Arabia and has spawned such entities as Al Qaeda and ISIS, organizations that have been encouraged, facilitated and utilized by successive British, US and Israeli regimes to wage their wars of terror against revolutionary nationalist regimes in both the Arab World and Africa. At the same time, these imperialist nations have used the existence of the very groups they support to wage their fallacious “war on terror”. In my many essays on the subject, I have referred to these so-called “Jihadists” as NATO’s foot soldiers. I know from my personal discussions with Abdul Kadir, that like myself, he was a firm opponent of terrorism in any shape or form.
Those who jailed Kadir for “terrorism” are well-known for aiding and abetting terrorism globally for centuries, right up to the present day. We in Guyana have experienced their terror since our very inception, starting with the massacre of the indigenous people of this land and the trans-Atlantic trade in captured Africans, right up to a specific case in point that occurred in our lifetime, that is, the bombing of Air Cubana Flight 455 on October 6th, 1976. This was a CIA sponsored act of blatant terrorism that took the lives of 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese and 5 North Koreans. And who was responsible for the deaths of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the brutal destruction of AIM (American Indian Movement) and the Black Panther Party, and all the false charges that were used to jail George Jackson, Leonard Peltier, Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu Jamal and Jamil al Amin (Rap Brown) to name but a few of the many political activists imprisoned by successive US regimes. These activists were imprisoned for resisting the fascism, implemented both nationally and internationally, under the guise of so-called liberal democracy, by the leading terrorist entity and rogue state – the USA. Disciples of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey must never forget what J. Edgar Hoover and his “G-Men” did to Garvey, in order to destroy one of the most powerful African organizations ever established. What can we call this, if not terrorism?
Finally, the PPP, who condemned APNU+AFC’s tribute to Abdul Kadir as support for terrorism, should be the last entity in this country and the world to accuse anyone or any organization of supporting terrorism. Again, kudos to the coalition for acknowledging the sterling contribution of the late Abdul Kadir. May Allah reward him with everlasting life, and damn the demons who set him up, stole him away from his family, and unjustly condemned him to a life of imprisonment.
Yours faithfully,
Gerald A. Perreira
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP)
