AS pressure continues to mount on Muslim group Jamaat al Muslimeen, and its branches spread across the country and while leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr remains behind bars for what he told his large congregation in his recent Eid Ul Fitr message, sources close to him have slammed their brother Muslims for setting the State upon them.

“Muslims should not be at war with other Muslims and that’s why I say this is more than an issue of zakaat,” a fighting Loris Ballack, head of Palo Seco Jamaat al Muslimeen and an aide of Imam Bakr told TnT Mirror last Thursday morning, minutes after his premises were searched for arms and ammunition by a contingent of officers.

In a fiery sermon two Fridays ago at the Mucurapo Road, St. James-based headquarters of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, Imam Bakr said that for the new year, he forsees bloodshed over the refusal by rich Muslims to pay zakaat to poorer Muslim communities like the Jamaat.

Zakaat is similar to tithes paid by Christians.

He has since been arrested and charged with sedition and was denied bail.

“It is our brothers who have set the State upon us,” lamented the emotional Ballack as word came in that heavy equipment had rolled into the Jamaat’s headquarters and under the watchful eyes of heavily armed police and soldiers, an extensive search for arms and ammunition had begun.

Officers allegedly found a sniper rifle and telescope, a hand grenade and several rounds of ammunition.

“They know we are talking the truth when it comes to zakaat, that’s why they are against us,” said Ballack.

Ballack, who like the rest of faithful, have openly supported the statement by their leader, revealed that the wealthy Muslims, instead of helping the less fortunate in a meaningful way, have found it convenient to use young brothers who have accepted Islam, to collect bad debts for them, and have turned others into slaves.

“… They have not lifted them out of a state of poverty.

“They really don’t care as they just have them there,” he went on.

“When you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, when you teach him to fish you feed him for life.”

He told Mirror that over the years some of the wealthy Muslims, have paid zakaat out of the country to places like Pakistan and India and the less fortunate brothers and sisters in the faith in TnT are left to fend for themselves.

“And that’s what causing the real war,” he continued.

“The errant Muslims have been exposed and that’s why the imam is before the courts.

“He knows exactly what he’s saying when he speaks out against the rich Muslims.

“Even if they give, they give very little since they don’t want to lose their wealth.” He said it was important to note how “their wealthy friends jumped in the fray in their defence of the Muslims, even though they (Muslims) are not obeying the Qur’an.

“The action of the State is more than just zakaat, it’s about leadership and that’s why the wealthy and influential Muslims are making mischief. There is no proper Muslim leader in this country; everyone doing there own thing.”

According to Ballack, his leader is the most respected in the Caribbean and in the wider international community despite all the Islamic scholars other Muslim communities boast of.

“Our organisation is being tested again,” he went on.

“But as they destroy we will build again.

“We have young people to educate and feed; there are those who need us …”

He said quite a number of young men are embracing Islam.

“And we have to take care of them.”