{"id":3203,"date":"2019-11-08T17:19:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T17:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3203"},"modified":"2019-11-08T21:34:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T21:34:14","slug":"qahals-paradise-unmasked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3203","title":{"rendered":"Qahal’s Paradise Unmasked"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The shocking discovery made in a police\/military raid just three days ago (Tuesday, November 5) that Paradise, St. James, was home to the growing religious radicalized group \u2013 the Qahal Yawheh, appears to be just the tip of the iceberg, as allegations continue to swirl forward of the sexual exploitation of children and extortion of its members, among other crimes, further shedding light on the dark roots of the cult-like movement \u2013 which is now the focus of a national probe by the Office of the Children\u2019s Advocate, the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the unwanted attention, leaders of the group have not shied away from blasting media reports, claiming that they are being scandalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In a brief interview with the Western Mirror, moments before\ncursing our news team, Omar Thompson \u2013 one of the leaders of Qahal Yahweh,\nspoke amidst the chaos of children being whisked away by members of the\nsecurity forces and the CPFSA, on suspicion that they had been abused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are Qahal Yahweh,\u201d Thompson began, \u201cwe are the nation of Yahweh Elohim. We\u2019re here as a people \u2013 as citizens of Jamaica, deciding to make a stand once and for all. We truly believe that we have been treated unfairly by the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the CDA (referring to the CFPSA), and as a result\u2026 we have decided to take a stand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    As testament to Thompson\u2019s words, members of his\ncongregation stood clenched fisted, ready to fight, with some even engaging\narmed security forces personnel \u2013 who were forced to breach the property after\nnot being allowed in, by throwing sticks and stones at them. Others stood and\nchanted against the security forces, while there were those who resisted the\narmed personnel\u2019s attempts to remove children from the property, all while\nThompson observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thompson declared that the reports of child abuse and other criminal activities, which he says prompted the security forces to act, are unsubstantiated, and are tantamount to religious persecution. \u201cThe CDA has no business here. No one is being abused. What they should be doing is shutting down these public schools, all of them. Sending your children to these public schools is where the abuse is \u2013 that\u2019s what the CDA should be doing,\u201d Thompson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Members of Qahal Yahweh stand ready to fight<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    When our news team pressed for answers regarding Thompson\u2019s\napparent vitriol for public schools, the interview was abruptly ended. Further\nattempts to get answers to other allegations saw Thompson cursing the news\nteam, citing that we were agents of the devil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    AUNT AND NIECE TELL ALL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But an aunt and niece, who have been engaged in an intense back-and-forth with the group since last September, were willing to tell all to the Western Mirror. The two, in an interview after news of the raid went public, shared that their 16-year-old female relative, who had been pulled from a prominent high school in St. James by her mother \u2013 who is also a member of Qahal Yahweh \u2013 was suffering, and they needed to rescue her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cMy sister pulled her,\u201d shared the aunt, who will be referred\nto as Small, \u201cbecause the group believed that children of their members should\nnot be affiliated with the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Upon learning of her niece\u2019s untimely withdrawal from\nschool, Small made the matter known to the CPFSA in October last year, but\nnothing had been done. \u201cThe information I gave was taken, and they said they\nwould get back to me. But I hadn\u2019t heard anything for a while so I then took\nthe matter to Montego Bay. Again, my information was taken. I expressed to them\nthat I was concerned about my niece\u2019s sexuality, as at the time she was living\non the compound [in Paradise], her mother had not been living with her there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Not being satisfied with the pace of the investigations that\nhad purportedly gotten underway following her reports, Small then went to a\npolice station, and again made the matter known. Despite the shock of the\nofficers to whom she relayed the details of her niece\u2019s withdrawal from school,\nand promises that they would look into it, things remained stagnant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After double-checking with the CFPSA regarding the investigation, Small\u2019s urgency to get her niece from the facility skyrocketed after she learned that the girl\u2019s mother had been exiled from the group and that the 16-year-old was now living among the group all by herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThey kicked her out and told her that she had a few weeks to live. They cursed her, and she really believed she was cursed. As a result, she wrote a letter, which she had stamped by a Justice of the Peace, stating that my niece should be turned over to the care of Omar Thompson [leader of Qahal Yahweh], in case she died,\u201d Small explained. It was also revealed that the woman \u2013 fearing she would soon be dead, also took out a life insurance policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    She was allegedly expelled from the congregation because she\nexpressed dissatisfaction at the husband she was assigned \u2013 a common practice\nin the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As the situation worsened, Small pressed to have a different\nofficer assigned to her case, as the current officer \u2013 for various reasons, had\nbeen slow to mount a case against the religious group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Despite those efforts, and despite the group being raided,\nand some six children taken away on suspicion of abuse, the Qahal Yahweh\nremains active on their base in Paradise. As for Small\u2019s niece, she is still on\nthe compound, with no clear idea as to whether they will be able to rescue her,\namong the reports of other 16-year-old girls becoming pregnant and \u2018wedded\u2019 off\nto older men in the congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The JCF, as well as the CPFSA, declined to comment on the matter, as they said investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    -Michael Nattoo<\/strong> – Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The shocking discovery made in a police\/military raid just three days ago (Tuesday, November 5) that Paradise, St. James, was home to the growing religious radicalized group \u2013 the Qahal Yawheh, appears to be just the tip of the iceberg, as allegations continue to swirl forward of the sexual exploitation of children and extortion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[431,1621,428,1619,1618,80,138,1620,67,1617,1616,31,30],"class_list":["post-3203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-cda","tag-child-abuse","tag-child-protection-and-family-services-agency","tag-cpfsa","tag-cult","tag-extortion","tag-jamaica-constabulary-force","tag-office-of-the-childrens-advocate","tag-paradise","tag-police-military","tag-qahal-yahweh","tag-st-james","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3203"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3213,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions\/3213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}