Houthis violating sanctity of Yemen’s mosques

Noura Bendari

The Iran-backed Houthi militia has been committing all types of violations in Yemen since turning against legitimacy in the Arab state in September 2014.

The militia commits violations even against mosques, in its bid to promote Shiite ideas.

Khomeini’s cry

On October 27, the Houthis kidnapped the imam of the Beit Bashir mosque in Annadira District in the southern province of Ibb.

A group of militiamen broke into the mosque and detained the imam and then drove him away, after the imam and other people praying at the mosque refused to obey the orders of the militia.

On October 26, the Houthi militia set a mosque in

Jhran District in Dhamar Province on fire. The militia also burned 100 copies of the Quran, the holy book of Muslims.

The mosque and the copies of the Quran were burned against the background of the rejection of those inside the mosque to repeat Shiite hymns.

On October 14, the Houthis brought down the fence around al-Ferdaus Mosque, the second largest in Yemeni capital Sana’a.

The militia closed down a school for teaching the Quran earlier and kicked members of the Salafi movement out of it and out of the adjacent mosque.

During the past few years, the Houthis turned a large number of the mosques in Yemen into military barracks.

It also used the same mosques for the storage of arms, mines and grenades, violating the sanctity of these houses of worship.

Iranian religion

Yemeni political analyst Mahmud al-Taher said the Houthis do not recognize Islam as a religion.

The militia, he said, works to introduce a new religion, namely what can be called the “Iranian religion”.

“The Houthis offer training to mosque imams in the Shiite faith,” al-Taher told The Reference. “It only wants to brainwash these imams.”