Religious radicalisation: an increasing feature of a once peaceful society
Published:Wednesday | November 17, 2021 | 12:09 AMThe SSP Diaries - -
The founder of Bedwardism, Alexander Bedward, lived from 1848 to 1930 in Kingston, Jamaica. Known to be a Baptist revivalist and very charismatic, he claimed to be the reincarnation of Christ and, like the prophet Elijah, summoned by the Lord. He declared that the Lord told him that he would ascend to heaven in a chariot and that those followers who did not accompany him would perish with the rest of the world.
On New Year’s Eve 1920, Bedward sat in a tree in his chair (chariot) at the appointed time of the ascension. After some time, when nothing happened, he climbed down and was ridiculed by many that had gathered to witness the event. Bedward and some of his followers were arrested in 1921, and he was sent to the asylum where he spent the rest of his life, dying in 1930.
The use of an ideological framework to influence people to change their behaviours has been around since the beginning of time.
On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple, supervised the murder of his followers in the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana. Some 900 women and children lost their lives. Among this total were US Congressman Leo Ryan, NBC correspondent and cameraman Don Harris/Bob Brown and the San Francisco’s Examiner’s Greg Robinson – all of whom had travelled to Guyana to investigate reports of abuse among Jones’ followers. Jim Jones was known to be a very charismatic leader whom people followed blindly but he feared being exposed, hence resorting to taking his own life and the lives of others.
The Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group in Trinidad and Tobago, staged an attempted coup on July 27, 1990. They attempted to overthrow the Government of Trinidad, holding members of Parliament hostage. The prime minister was shot and injured, as were others, and 24 people were killed. The leader of the Islamic Group, Abu Bakr, was able to negotiate his surrender, to the extent that, although charged with treason, he and his followers were later ordered free by Trinidad’s Court of Appeal. Abu Bakr died in October 2021 but his organisation continues.
A BLIND EYE
Dr Kevin O Smith of the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries (PIKRM) summoned his congregation for “religious rituals” on Sunday, October 17, 2021 in Montego Bay, St James, Jamaica. In the aftermath, we discover yet another highly charismatic religious leader, reportedly well versed in the teachings of the Bible, a student of psychology, with a large captive congregation.
He used these attributes as tools for self-aggrandisement, extreme deviant and violent behaviours. As has been widely publicised, this leader of what can only be described as a cult reportedly frequently abused young boys at his home and in his church building, spoke in derogatory tones about women, demanded blind loyalty from his followers and lived a lavish lifestyle. Members of the security forces were known to be among his followers, at the very least a female member of the JCF and an alleged captain in the JDF.
On the night in question, those persons who had “taken the mark” (COVID-19 vaccination), being among the 144 members summoned to church, all dressed in white, were said to be the targets of his deviance. When the police intervened, they discovered one female with her throat slashed and another person stabbed.
Dr Horace Chang, the minister of national security in Jamaica, made the point that religious bodies should be allowed to carry out their functions as long as it is in keeping with the law. He is right. We are a religious, creative, resilient, yet oftentimes gullible people. So, the mechanisms that governments put in place to keep nations safe and secure need to continuously examine trends in our history/society that lead to the emergence of extreme behaviours.
More and more each day, mounting evidence points to a road that we should make every attempt not to travel. The Caribbean region, by virtue of these revelations, is making itself a prime target for the advancement of extreme radicalism on a larger scale.
How could we not know of the growth of such an organisation until it was virtually too late? Members of the security forces graced its halls, where does their allegiance lie? Is it possible that they have compromised their organisations or positions of trust? There are a million questions to be asked and answered.
FIX THE PROBLEM
The National Security Strategy/Policy of a country drives the way in which it deals with its threats. If the one that Jamaica or any other country has is no longer functional, then replace it. Governments and their security forces are meant to take their guidance from that document. There appears to be something wrong with the way in which the community policing component of the JCF is rolled out if the police assigned to the geographical area of the PIKRM had no idea of what was happening at the church, until it was too late.
There is much to be addressed where the citizens themselves are concerned, especially those “in the know” who continuously cast a blind eye with the proverbial hope that the atrocities will not affect them, or, perhaps they do not want to be regarded as “informers”.
We have not done enough to rid people of this negative culture throughout the region.
Our intelligence-gathering capacities are sadly wanting. It cannot be acceptable that being privy to major security threats and incidents, globally, we appear to be continuously looking outwards and not inwards, in our own organisations, and failing to determine our new and emerging realities.
Extremism is not the purview of the Islamic world only; it occurs in all belief systems. No country in the Caribbean needs any more of these types of incidents. Let us commit to fixing the problem before it’s too late.