Marriage is forbidden and robbery is halal .. From the fatwas of the Huthis to tear apart Yemen

By: Mohamed Sha’at

The Houthi group resorted to the use of the Fatwa to justify its actions and recruit followers according to the Houthi ideology and the Iranian political agenda in Yemen. Also to propagate the ideas that the Houthis believed and rejected by the Yemeni people, and tried to make loyalty to the Houthis.

In recent years, Houthi fatwas have diversified to achieve political objectives or to justify raising funds from citizens to arm militias. As well as several fatwas that serve the objectives of a militia coup and promote Houthi ideology.

The latest fatwas were a religious fatwa forbidding the marriage of any girl resides in areas under the control of Iran’s allies, from residents in areas opposed to them. This came after the militias prevented the marriage of a girl from the Hajja province under the control of the putschists and a Yemeni in Marib under the control of the internationally recognized government of Yemen .

The Mufti of Al-Houthi Mufti issued a coup against Shams al-Din bin Sharaf al-Din, a fatwa forbidding marriage of loyalists, considering it a “betrayal” that calls for the punishment of those who commit it in the areas controlled by the coup. “No one should marry his daughter or sister, from areas of legitimate control, and that «betrayal and those who do it must be disciplined».

The “Houthi fatwa” came against the background of the attack by the Houthi militia a few days ago on the wedding procession of two girls who were on their way from the “Huga” under the control of the militia to their spouses in the city of Marib under the legitimate government.

Where the members of a checkpoint for the militias in the province of Baidah prevented the bride from going to the Marib, took their car and removed them from the car and took them to a nearby security barracks.

After the increase in the looting of public funds in Yemen by the Houthi militia under the pretext of supporting the so-called “war effort”, the militia tried to justify the looting carried out on the basis of an Iranian fatwa issued by Tehran authorities in Qom in 2011 allowing the Shiites to seize the money of the year.

According to press reports, a large part of the money goes to the pockets of the leaders of the Houthi militias, and the Houthis are based on their looting to a number of references claiming to be “religious,” including the fatwa based on what Khomeini wrote in his book ” In which he said: “The strongest is the attachment of the Prophet to the people of war in permitting what he took from them. It is apparent that it is permissible to take his money wherever he is, and in any way he must have taken out five.”

Tariq Abu Hashima, head of the Strategic Studies Unit at the Ifta House, said in a statement to El-Marga’a that the fatwa is an important extension of these entities and holds the lion’s share in their religious discourse. The fatwa in general constitutes 95% ,and political fatwas come in between 80% and 85% of the fatwa of each organization.

Abu Hashima also pointed out that some terrorist organizations resort to the fatwa to justify their retreat on the ground. This is what happened with the terrorist organizations active in Egypt, which witnessed a significant decline in the second half of 2018 due to the intensification of military operations by the Egyptian army, which was reflected by the results of the World Fatwa Conference of the Egyptian Fatwa Center for 2018.