Local Islamic leader weighs in on Middle East turmoil
Published:Wednesday | January 8, 2020 | 12:20 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
As the Islamic Republic of Iran threatens harsh vengeance against the United States for killing Qassem Soleimani, head of the Iranian elite Quds military force and one of the most powerful figures in the country, local Islamic leader Mustafa Muhammad said that US President Donald Trump may have miscalculated the severe implications of his action.
“I don’t think it was thoroughly thought through in terms of the implications,” Muhammad told The Gleaner yesterday after completing prayers at his mosque on South Camp Road in Kingston.
Soleimani was killed last Friday in a US drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people have mourned him in both Iran and Iraq.
Muhammad, who is the president of the Islamic Council of Jamaica (ICOJ), said that Muslims were concerned, like ordinary members of the society, about the perceived danger of an escalation in the Middle East.
He said that some of the cultural sites that President Trump threatened to destroy if Iran attacked US interests had been established centuries ago.
“It is something that you have to be mindful of, and we pray and hope that it will not get beyond what has already happened,” he added.
When asked about the Supreme Leader and Iranian cleric’s response of harsh revenge against the US for the killing of Soleimani, the local Islamic leader said that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had no other option but to declare an offensive against the American military. “He could not have gone any other route because if he had called for peace, I am almost sure that the nation would turn against him.”
REFRAIN FROM CONFLICT
Muhammad said that peace could never have been an option after the assassination of such a powerful and towering figure in Iran. However, despite the bellicose rhetoric being exchanged between the US and Iran, Muhammad is of the view that it will not spill over into an all-out war.
“I strongly believe that they will come to the line and step back,” he stated.
Muhammad urged both the US and Iran to “visualise the severity of a clash between them” and make a decision to refrain from engaging in armed conflict.
“To say that the Iranians will not retaliate, I would be living in a dream world, you can only pray and hope that they just talk,” he noted.
The ICOJ president indicated that prayer was the greatest weapon for the Muslim community.
“If you have a problem, there is no one greater than Almighty God to take your problems to,” he said.
And Muhammad has argued that the action of Trump has united the people of the Iranian state, who, before Soleimani’s killing, had carried out widespread protests against the government.