Friday, May 29, 2009
Gulf News
Sana'a: A prominent cleric has said that a foreign conspiracy was behind the unrest in southern Yemen.
Addressing about 1,000 Salafi scholars on Wednesday, Shaikh Abdul Majeed Al Zandani said the deployment of warships in the Arabian Sea is also part of the alleged conspiracy.
"Do you think they came to breathe the sea breeze or spend holidays, or to strike pirates as they say? No, the matter is much bigger than piracy; it is flagrant interference in the affairs of the region including Yemen," said Al Zandani.
"For the oil of Muslims in the Gulf countries, there was the invasion and war on Iraq, and for the oil of Muslims in Darfur, there is now this heated campaign against Sudan," he added.
He said however, that religious scholars as well as President Ali Abdullah Saleh still have the ability to get Yemen out of the current crisis.
"The solution is at the hands of the scholars and obeyed leaders. It's only them. When they get angry, people get angry, and when they are satisfied, people get satisfied," he said.
The cleric also disclosed that a new rebel movement was formed in the desert region of Yemen, which includes Mareb Shabwa and Al Jawf, and Hadramout.
"If this movement, which is in the region of oil, succeeds, then we'll have the Yemeni desert issue in addition to the Moroccan desert issue," he said.
Ahmad Al Mua'alem, southern leader of a Salafi association in Hadramout, called on the people to obey the president and urged them to stand up against anyone who disobeys him.
"We refuse disobedience to the ruler [president] and we call for combating anyone who rebels against him," he told the Salafis
"If necessary, stand up against those who disobey the ruler even if they are respected clerics, let alone those deviants who do not care for religion," Al Mua'alem said referring to secessionist groups and religious scholars who support them in the south.
Judge Hamoud Al Hetar, Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, who was also in the meeting, said he is supporting those who are calling for unity and refusing secession.
"This meeting of the scholars of Yemen is a sign of freedom," said Al Hetar, who was presented by the Salafi organisers as the inspiration of the meeting.
For his part, Abdul Aziz Al Dubae, Chairman of the Salafi Al Hekma Al Yamania, a charity organisation which also organised the meeting said: "We are here to confirm that we refuse sectarianism, regionalism and we would say that calls for separation are prohibited in Islam, and we are obligated to combat such calls."
The meeting brought together Salafi scholars, and tribal shaikhs, from the north and south like Hadramout, Shabwa, Abyan, Aden, Lahj, Al Dhale'e, Yafe'e, Taiz Ibb, Hodiedah and Sa'ada,
"It's a call for all Yemenis to come under the flag of Quran and Sunna, reject the differences and refuse calls for separation.
"If there is corruption and mistakes we should treat them," he said.
The Salafis who organised the conference are viewed by observers as "liberal Salafis" compared to other Salafis who ban the forming of associations and even posing for pictures, like the two Salafi centres in Ma'abar and Sa'ada which boycotted the conference.
Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
