Robinson, were held hostage at gunpoint, while the group occupied a television station and parliament, and chaos and looting broke out in the streets of the capital, Port of Spain.

[3] The movement had its social origins in a widespread presence of black racism and supremacy, the division of community on the basis of race, the illicit drug trade and ideology of extremist jihad.

[1] On the international stage, JAM received training and support from the Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi through the latter's World Islamic Call Society [de].

[2] In July 1990, forty-two insurgents stormed the parliament, taking Prime Minister Arthur Napoleon Raymond (ANR) Robinson and most of his staff hostage.

Seventy-two insurgents stormed a local police station, and at 6:00 PM, JAM leader Yasin Abu Bakr told the public the government had been overthrown.

Abu Bakr and 114 of his followers were granted presidential pardons, which were later retracted, but no JAM members from the coup have ever served jail time in connection with the attack.

These crimes include drug and gang related killings, rape and a spree of kidnappings for ransom of members of the local upper and middle class.

His successor as imam, Sadiq al Razi (who had participated in the 1990 coup attempt), called for conciliation between the JAM and the rest of the country in 2024; he also announced that the organization would partake in the upcoming Emancipation Day procession.