–President Ali says

PRESIDENT, Dr Irfaan Ali, the first Muslim President of Guyana, as well as the second in the Americas, in an Al Jazeera documentary said that if a person is not promoting peace, tolerance, respect, trust, or love, then they cannot be representing Islam.

He said that Guyana the country is rich in terms of diversity.

“In many mosques across the country, you will see that community spirit again where the community and the people in the community, the children, their parents, they are coming together as families joined together in one community, breaking the fast of iftar, sharing and praying together, you know, connecting with each other,” he said.

Dr Ali added: “The diversity is not only from a religious perspective; the diversity is from an ethnic diversity also. We are a land of six different peoples fused together under one common banner, and that is we’re Guyanese.”

President Ali mentioned that in the last week, Guyana had a very interesting period where the Muslims are in Ramadan, the Christians are in the period of Lent and the Hindus are in the period of Navratri.

“The people of the country, they were fused together… there are certain fundamental principles that bounded the people together and that is the love for freedom, their respect for each other, viewing each other equally in the eyes of the law in the eyes of human and developing that level of respect and tolerance for each other,” he said.

The Head-of-State shared that he comes from a normal Guyanese family which contributed significantly to public service.

“My grandparents and my parents and myself, our family came up in an Islamic background. Both my parents would have completed Hajj. I’m from a village called Leonora, on the West Coast of Demerara…I grew up playing in the compound of the Leonora Mosque that’s our local mosque,” he said.

President Ali said that as a child, he remembers looking forward to Ramadan. He said that the community would come together to break their fasts together.

“As a community, people came, all the children, your parents, they were all there, breaking the fast together, eating together, sharing together, eating from the same plate and then praying together, building relationships,” he said.