GUYANA: JFK BOMB PLOT MAY CAUSE BACKLASH AGAINST MUSLIMS.

By Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Jun. 8, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- Tourism industry leaders in Guyana are mulling over the news that four Caribbean nationals may have been involved in an alleged plot to bomb fuel tanks and infrastructure at New York's JFK Airport.

Most people in the tourism-dependent region saw terrorism as a U.S. problem, not a Caribbean problem, but that changed somewhat when U.S. federal and state officials called a press conference in New York last weekend to discuss the alleged plot.

Three of the four suspects -- Russell DeFreitas, 63; Abdul Kadir 55; and Abdel Nur, 57 -- are from Guyana. A small, coastal, English-speaking country in South America, Guyana has a population of 730,000 and is home to the 15-nation Caribbean Community.

The other suspect, Kareem Ibrahim, 56, is from neighboring Trinidad, a twin island republic that supplies 70 percent of the winter gas needs of …