The Saada War: A Salafi Assault on Zaidism?
The following (in the box) is a “Guest Post”, meaning I didn’t write it. And the author makes a point that I have been trying to make for years, and that many in the west find confusing: Yemeni President Saleh is no longer a (Shiite) Zaidi. President Saleh is a Wahabbi convert, like his half-brother General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar who is leading the military assualt on Sa’ada province, the historical center of Zaidism. Historically Yemeni Zaidis and (Sunni) Shaifis have had excellent relations (and still do) and are close in their orientation. But to the extent that the state itself is pushing Salafism across the nation, the Hashimites and Zaidis have become targets in many ways.
Guest post: Sanaa Governorate and Zaidiyyah : Statements, Expectations and Facts
What the authority is doing of killing towards who believed they are Zaidiyyah and having informative authority upon Zaidiyyah and accusing them of being agents for Iran and Magi is a dangerous signal reached to a degree that people in Sanaa became aware of the facts.
By the conflict between the government and Al Hutheyon which affects their future, their stability and their intellectual liberty where state control and decreasing of the status of those who they think are the supporters of Al -Huthei and without charge or conviction, and this fact helps to aggravate the matter and people fear for their lives.
President Saleh is no longer a Zaidi as known among the society he is loyal to the Gulf and he closes the Zaidiyyah schools and predecessor schools this is what is happening in Sa’dah.
A high-ranking officials said that the supporters of Al-Huthei growing every day as a result of the government forces of blackmail and attacks on citizens and it is certainly that Zaidiyyah in Sanaa have to defend their religious inheritance and intellectual and it is not easy for the state to bring ideology in place of another without sufficient awareness and a civilized and modern methods rather than physical eliminations.
One political analyst says that the clashes which occur in Sa’dah between Al Huthei supporters and the government are the result of the state expansion in spreading of Salafism thought and the establishment of associations and religious schools that affect on society and attacking the society of disbelief , and so the difference of the known sectarian group.
Conversely, which the Government was doing to reduce the presence of Zaidiyyah and accuses them that they cause economic and political problems for Yemen and They are obstructing the wheel of Yemen’s accession to the Gulf States system and that can not be achieved fully only after the elimination of Zaidiyyah thought , which the Gulf Cooperation Council states consider it as an Iranian thought and Shiite doctrine affects their faith the faith of Sunnis
Political analyst Mohamed Al Mansour said there should be a change of ideology so that we can acquire the other acceptance and get to the good rank, peaceful and to live together with neighboring countries and this can occur only after the elimination of any orientations conflict with Sunna thought and community.
A group of writers and political analysts responded saying that the change of ideology is not a hiring staff office will be transferred from one place to another and Islam guaranteed freedom for all who witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad Messenger of God, they have no sufficient evidence to drive them out of religion
