Muslim leaders urge vigilance as violent crime wave hits businesses

The Muslim community has stepped up security measures and warned members to remain vigilant, as a sharp rise in violent crime sweeps the island and disproportionately affects their businesses.

With the country having already recorded 25 homicides up to Monday, of which 16, or 64 per cent, were by gun, President of the Barbados Muslim Association (BMA) Anwar Nana disclosed to Barbados TODAY on Wednesday evening that Muslims were not taking anything for granted in their homes and businesses.

“We are part of the wider community and we also will be impacted like everybody else. We had a case a couple of weeks ago where two of our members were held up. So, it will come down to us as well,” Nana, who is also chairman of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO), said.

“It is just a matter of being vigilant and being careful in what we do, because a lot of our guys are on the road. Our business is on the road and not in a fixed location. It is a matter of being vigilant and hoping for the best.”

He continued: “It is also a matter of taking precautions, changing up the routines every now and then. We have Muslim guys who also have stores in town as well and they also have to be careful. I don’t think it would affect them as much as the guys on the streets. Right now, there is a lot of crime generally all over Barbados and we need to be very vigilant in all of our dealings.”

In residential areas, extra measures have been taken to secure properties and avoid being predictable in their movements, Nana said.

“Even at home, we try to make sure doors are locked, where before, it wasn’t like that. But now, we make sure that doors are secure,” he pointed out.

The Muslim association leader also addressed the risky issue of handling and transporting cash during this time, turning to his role as head of the PSV association.

“Even with that, you try not to have large sums of money on you. You limit the amount of money that you carry. However, there are a lot of ways you can move money. There are a lot of precautions you can take to limit the amount of cash that you carry. We do that. We try to limit the cash so the fellows wouldn’t have big sums of cash on them.”

Nana indicated that he was looking forward to the implementation of the cashless pay system, which will be deployed onboard the route taxis and minibuses.

He suggested that PSV operators should try to avoid becoming targets for potential robbers by not displaying money unnecessarily and by dropping off cash at prearranged points.

The APTO chairman said that while his organisation is on board with the pending cashless system, there are some issues to be ironed out before it is rolled out.

“There are some issues that we are trying to resolve,” Nana said. “We are working on it. There are still discussions going on every week . . . two weeks on it . . . negotiations with the suppliers, the providers of the service. We are at that stage right now. We are negotiating with two or three different providers, the best rates.”

He expects the new pay system to be rolled out around the beginning of next year at the latest, but explained that if things work out well, it may be implemented in another three months.

With just over a week before the first half of this year ends, Barbados has chalked up 25 murders – a little more than half of the 49 homicides for the whole of 2024. (EJ)