Islam prohibits passing on wrongdoing to others – Irfaan Ali

Last Updated on Sunday, 15 February 2026, 21:49 by Writer

President Irfaan Ali on Sunday noted that Islam does not permit the passing on of wrongdoing to others, in an address at the opening of the National Ramadan Village 2026.

“Blaming others is considered a trait of the devil, an injustice that combines a minor sin into a major sin. That is Islamic theology,” he said at the event being hosted by the Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO), Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.

Dr Ali’s remarks came amid repeated allegations by fellow Muslim, Azruddin Mohamed, that he bankrolled Dr Ali’s People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) especially during its time in opposition from 2015 to 2020.

Dr Ali, a devout Muslim, recently shrugged off those claims by Mr Mohamed, the leader of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and Guyana’s Leader of the Opposition.

The United States (US) Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in announcing sanctions on Mr Mohamed and his father Nazar Mohamed alleged that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.

The Mohameds are currently engaged in a legal battle to avoid being extradited to the US to face trial for alleged wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

Guyana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing Terrorism (AMLCFT) Act states a person commits the offence of money laundering if he knowingly or having reasonable grounds to believe that any property in whole or in part directly or indirectly represents any person’s proceeds of crime, among other things, acquires, possesses or uses that property, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that it is derived directly or indirectly from proceeds of crime.

That law states that a natural person, who is convicted of such an offence, can be fined not less than GY$1 million and imprisonment for seven years and in the case of a corporate body to a fine of not less than GY$200 million and not more than GY$500 million.

In the case of a body corporate subject to criminal liability, the AMLCFT Act says this shall not prevent the possibility of parallel criminal, civil or administrative liability.

Guyana’s High Court has already ruled in a separate and unrelated case that an unincorporated political party does not have a legal personality.