Religious heads condemn Mungalsingh

Mungalsingh’s statement was made in the Senate on Tuesday. “I object one time to that. I find he is disrespectful, he has no right to call for sterilisation,” said an angry Baptist Archbishop and former UNC Senator Barbara Burke.

Burke added, “Are we in a communist country? Crime is all over...they killing in Arima and Point Fortin, Diego Martin, not only Laventille.

They will start saying they want to sterilise people in Laventille but tell them that we don’t have no yacht or boat to bring in the guns. So the guns come and they think the black boys will kill out themselves and stop making children so they could turn Laventille into Eastmoorings.”

Pentecostal Pastor Winston Cuffie made reference to both Mungalsingh’s statement and the response by Local Government minister Rennie Dumas who shouted, “Genocide! Genocide on the UNC platform!”

“It is very unfortunate that such a statement should be made by a Senator. I agree with the Minister’s response that it is tantamount to genocide, it is reminiscent to the Hitler philosophy to eliminate the less fortunate social class instead of dealing with problems by civilised means,” Cuffie said.

Mungalsingh told Newsday he was closely connected with the Muslim community and his statement was not something that this religious group was opposed to.

Anjuman Sunnat-Ul-Jamaat Association (ASJA) Public Relations Officer Kamal Hosein however told Newsday, “We are against any type of abortion unless the life of the mother is in danger.

In the case of voluntary sterilisation it is not something that has been... you are talking about someone advocating for this but it is not going to stop crime.”

He added that, “normally God has made man to be reproductive. We don’t see that as a means of bringing about (crime) control.

Also, there are so many types of people in the prisons, people who are displaced, dispossessed, it is not because they want to be there.”

When Newsday contacted several Catholic priests none wished to comment publicly on the matter.