Incitement against the sacred: Houthi Scholars Association statement reveals malicious intentions

Fatima Abdul Ghani

Iran’s disruptive and destructive role in the Arab region by supporting armed militias and creating rebel entities as their arms is no longer hidden, just as Tehran worked to establish the Houthi militia in Yemen in 1983, and the real project of its sectarian militias seeks to export the Khomeinist revolution.

In line with Iran’s expansionist project in the Arab region, the Iranian-backed Houthi Scholars Association issued a statement on the occasion of Jerusalem Day, which included a fatwa inciting to invade Mecca, as it is the shortest route to Al-Aqsa Mosque. The association claimed in a statement that the liberation of Jerusalem will not happen unless “the Grand Mosque [in Mecca] is liberated from the control of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Former Yemeni Endowments Minister Ahmed Attia described the association’s statement as a “declaration of war against the Muslims’ qibla (direction of prayer)” and an offense to their feelings.

Attia confirmed on Twitter that the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque was a disgraceful lightening-rod issue, saying, “Whoever targets holy sites with missiles will not protect them, and whoever blows up the homes of God will not defend them.”

It is noteworthy that the statement from the Houthi Scholars Association came just a day after the Revolutionary Guard commander’s statements inciting the continuation of missile attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The deputy head of the legitimate Yemeni Scholars Association, Dr. Muhammad Musa al-Ameri, said in a statement that the Houthi militia is an Iranian tool to destabilize the region and harm the land of the Two Holy Mosques.

“A sane person no longer has the slightest doubt that the terrorist Houthi militia has become a poisoned dagger in the side of the Arab and Islamic nation, and through its daily speech and behavior it reveals its distance from the values of true Islam and its tendency towards extremism in hostility to the people of Yemen and the Islamic nation, in the service of the Iranian project,” he added.

Ameri pointed out that “the Houthi militia has not only launched its missiles towards the Sacred Country of God, but rather, through its sectarian rhetoric, it is working to mobilize society in its areas of control to be fuel for a long-term war, which these militias are planning against Yemen and its brotherly neighbors.”

Ameri stressed that “the satanic ambitions of the Houthi militia will not stop at an end, as long as they are under the auspices of regional and international parties that supply them with weapons and reasons for survival, provide them with political cover, and save them whenever the noose is tight.”

He pointed out that “the Houthi rhetoric and their aggressive behavior confirm the validity and importance of the step taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to stem the Houthi strife and support the Yemeni people in confronting this lost group. Just as the Kingdom has succeeded in confronting this militia and thwarting its destructive project in Yemen, it is able to protect the Two Holy Mosques from its evil and those behind it.”

For his part, Yemeni Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Moammar al-Eryani condemned the Houthi association’s statement, explaining that it reveals the real extremist project of a sectarian militia moving as a tool to implement the project to export the Khomeinist revolution and summarizes the danger it poses not to the security, stability and identity of Yemen, but to regional and international peace and security.

Eryani indicated that the statement refutes all the claims and allegations that the mullah regime in Iran and its sectarian militias are promoting about Jerusalem, which confirms their exploitation of the Palestinian cause as a slogan for mobilization and a cover to implement Tehran’s expansionist plan in Yemen and the region, as well as to achieve political gains and restore the glories of the shattered Persian Empire.

Eryani stressed that this disastrous project, which is fueled by extremist slogans, beliefs and ideas, threatens to plunge Yemen and the region into endless conflicts and wars, and this requires that all Arab and Islamic countries and the entire world perceive the danger and unite efforts to confront it and eliminate it in its cradle before confronting it becomes more costly.

Observers believe that the inciting statement is a Houthi reproduction of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s rhetoric and the Iranian revolution by exploiting religious sentiments, playing on emotions, manipulating issues and employing them in the interest of Iran’s expansionist project that targets the Arab region.