During the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990, the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Yemen seriously deteriorated. To begin with, the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Yemen was changed to a consulate and our ambassador returned to Tehran. Later on, due to the lack of Iranians in that country, the consulate was closed at the end of the year 1992, but the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran was performing his job in Sana’a. This situation did not last for a long while. It did not take long before the relationship between these two countries improved and bilateral agreements in different fields were signed.
The presence of these political ups and downs between these two countries did not prevent the cultural relationship between both parties. Consequently, after the unification of the two countries of Yemen and the signing of cultural, scientific and educational agreements between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Yemen on 7th February 1991, the Islamic Republic of Iran commenced an exhibition of calligraphy and painting of Iranian artists. On 20th July 1992 (29/4/1371), a cultural complex named ‘Dar al-Kitab’ was opened at the city center in the presence of Iranian and Yemeni officials. (Amir Dehi, 1389, p. 128)
In general, it can be said that from the time of the inception of the Islamic revolution, the cultural relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Yemen has led to the formation of several cultural institutions that were influential in promulgating the Islamic-Shi’ah culture.
There are numerous Shi’ah institutions, schools, groups and movements whereby we can mention the following examples: The Shi’ah Association of Ja’fariyyah in Yemen, Islamic Society of Yemen, Badr Scientific-Cultural Institute, the Missionary Foundation, Imam Zayd ibn Ali Cultural Foundation, Society of Yemen Scholars, Foundation of Social and Cultural Evidence, al-Ja’fariyyah Schools in Aden, Dar az-Zahra Institution of Cultural Media, Association of Abdullah al-Radhi and Dar al-Ahbab Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) in Taiz.
During the transitions that took place in 2011 and onwards, the most vital Shi’ah organization is the Houthi movement (with its original name of Ansarullah). The leaders of this movement who are under the influence of the views and ideologies of Imam Khomeyni and Imam Khamenei have played a significant role in the transitions of this country. Therefore, it is necessary to have an analysis and a brief introduction of this Shi’ah movement.
Even though from the beginning of the victory of the Islamic revolution of Iran, the people of Yemen and specifically the Zaydi Shi’ahs of this country were influenced by the Islamic revolution and its consequences, however, at the beginning of the 1990s, the movement of the Islamic awakening of the Shi’ahs in Yemen assumed a more serious form under the influence of the Islamic revolution of Iran.
In this decade, Husayn al-Houthi who formed the movement of the Islamic awakening can be singled out as the most eminent personality and founder of the Houthi movement. He is the son of Allamah Sayyid Badruddin al-Houthi, who was one of the eminent Zaydiyyah scholars. He established a spiritual, ideological and emotional relationship with the Islamic revolution of Iran. Before we embark on the Houthi movement and its transformation, we shall hereby examine his personality and the influence that the Islamic revolution of Iran had on him.
Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi (full names: Sayyid Husayn Tabataba’i al-Houthi) is the son of Badruddin Tabataba’i al-Houthi. He is the brother of Yahya Badruddin al-Houthi and Abdul-Malik Badruddin al-Houthi. He is a sayyid[1] with his family tree linking him to Imam Hasan (‘a). During the imposed war of Iraq against Iran, he travelled to Iran and attained a general acquaintance with the ideologies of Imam Khomeyni during his stay in Iran. After the demise of Imam Khomeyni, Husayn al-Houthi remained for a little while in Iran. He was so influenced by the ideologies and work of Imam Khomeyni to an extent that he used to mention his name in all his sermons.
In his sermon regarding the danger of the United States entering Yemen, Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi, says: “Imam Khomeyni indeed named the United States as the greatest Satan since it is always involved in every sedition and the real leader and controller of the United States are the Jews. This is because Imam Khomeyni is a just leader and therefore his invitation cannot be rejected.” He then adds: “We witnessed that during the time of Imam Khomeyni, all the people that stood in opposition to the Islamic revolution of Iran and all the countries that sided with Iraq to fight Iran, each of them faced their consequences one after the other. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the greatest enemy of the United States and Israel. Imam Khomeyni was very much interested in liberating the Arabs and Muslims from the control of the United States and he strove so much to annihilate Israel. Nonetheless, all the countries stood against him and we witnessed how all the countries that stood against Imam Khomeyni were hit back by the same countries that they had gone to seek help from. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were attacked by Iraq. Yemen too, sent a big number of its military troops to Iraq to fight against the Islamic revolution in Iran. We are predicting that the president of Yemen and his army will face the consequences of their actions.”
In another sermon entitled, ‘there is no excuse in the course of God’, he says: “Imam Khomeyni is the person that introduced hajj in its perfect meaning and according to the Noble Quran and clarified how it should be performed. He taught the Iranians to give up the slogan ‘exculpation from the United States, the infidels and Israel.” (Pir Bedaghi, 1386, site: www.alyamani.blogfa.com)
Likewise, in a part of his sermon on the 3rd of February, 2002, Husayn al-Houthi said: “All the people that opposed the Islamic revolution of Iran during the time of Imam Khomeyni, have all faced the consequences of their actions. This implies that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the biggest enemy of the United States and Israel. The founder of the Islamic revolution emphasized greatly on the liberation of the Arabs and Muslims from the colonial yoke of the United States and the Western power and made efforts in the course of annihilating Israel; nevertheless, several countries and their leaders stood against him and we all witnessed how these countries faced the consequences of their actions with a prime example being the United States’ invasion of Iraq.” (al-Manar, 2014)
In regards to the characteristics of Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi, Sayyid Yahya Ṭalib Mashari, the representative of Ansarullah in Najaf says: “Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi was a very upright person and a leader, less talkative but extremely hardworking, intelligent and had a great influence in the hearts of people. This was in a way that when he met someone, that person would automatically accept his leadership.” (The interview of Shaykh Husayni with Ṭalib Mashari on 15th January 2015 (25/10/1393).
As a religious scholar, Husayn al-Houthi had the intention of inducing an awareness mood and awakening in the youths of his country by means of Shi’ah orientation and promulgating the ideologies of Imam Khomeyni in the fields such as fighting against the United States and Israel. Owing to this fact, Sayyid al-Houthi and his father Badruddin translated more than one hundred sermons of Imam Khomeyni into Arabic and presented them to the youths and other people. By this means, after bringing the youths into accord and acquainting them with the ideologies of Imam Khomeyni, he commenced the first awakening against the corrupt regime.
As a result of this, at the beginning of 1986, one cultural institution was formed in North Yemen named ‘Union of Young Believers’ (Itihad Shabab al-Mu’min) whose major aim was teaching the Zaydi youths. Three people from the most celebrated Zaydi scholars named Najm al-Din al-Mua’yyidi, Badruddin al-Houthi and his son Husayn al-Houthi were amongst the most renowned scholars of this institution. In this union, different lessons were being taught to the youths for the sake of giving awareness and awakening them. Likewise, in addition to the lessons in this course, matters pertaining to the Islamic revolution of Iran were also being taught and the people who took the responsibility of teaching this matter were Muhammad Badruddin al-Houthi and Husayn al-Houthi.
In 1990, the unification of North and South Yemen took place and thus Yemen drafted a single constitution. Based on this constitution, the matter concerning political freedom and pluralism was at least discussed in terms of slogan and of course in practical terms to an extent. From this time onwards, we have seen the official formation of the Houthi movement. Thus, the Houthi movement presented itself as an ideological, political and armed movement or organization for the first time in 1990. Just as we had earlier on mentioned, prior to this, the initial activities of this movement, were teaching religious studies to the youths, organizing courses offering teachings regarding the religion and the Noble Quran, publishing Zaydi books and Training and upbringing the youths.
The Union of Young Believers underwent two phases. The first phase is the formation which began in 1990 and a little while after announcing the unification of the two Yemen in some of the regions of the Sa’dah province in the northern part of the capital city (Sana’a). The center of the al-Houthis became the point of desire for a lot of youths from different areas and famous provinces who used to rush towards Sa’dah inclined towards the Zaydiyyah sect. Step by step, the scope of the activities of the Houthi movement spread from Sa’dah province to the other provinces and cities whereby the desire of becoming a Zaydi was strong. This went on until the number of the students in these centers in Sa’dah province reached fifteen thousand people and according to the announcement of a manifesto named the Twelver Shi’ah of Yemen, the number had risen to eighteen thousand people. (Daghshi, 1392)
The second phase, which is the phase of armed encounter or armed organization, started gradually from the beginning of 2000. The reason as to why the activities of this movement were through the help of the central government is because the regime of Abdullah Saleh used to consider a cause of actions for preventing the influence of the Reform and Salafist party in this region to be necessary. Nonetheless, the aggressive stance of the Houthi movement in opposition to the United States and Israel prompted the security institutions of Yemen to come up against this movement.
The major approach of the movement which was initially cultural and educational, after the incident of September 11th and the stance against the United States, the leader and members of this movement stepped into political and security matters. Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi who was the representative of the people of Sa’dah in the parliament of Yemen and the secretary-general of the al-Haqq movement stood in opposition to the invasion after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Likewise, Sayyid Husayn was against the presence of the American military and spy forces. His biggest objection was the justification of the Yemen regime for allowing the foreign military forces to settle in their country. The close ties between the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh and the United States and Saudi Arabia and the excessive influence of the Salafists were also among the objections of Husayn al-Houthi. (Mas’udnia and Tavassoli, 1391, p. 132)
In this course, on the 17th of January, 2002, Sayyid Husayn demanded the sanctions against goods from the United States and Israel. (www.hayategharb.ir) He also went ahead and announced the slogans of ‘God is Great’, ‘Death to the United States’, ‘Death to Israel’, ‘Curse upon the Zionists’ and ‘Victory is for Islam’ as the official slogans of the Shi’ahs. Likewise, he explicitly declared the above mentioned five slogans as the slogans to be said after the prayers and specifically the Friday congregational prayers. The reaction of the central government to these slogans is one of the major reasons for the beginning of the confrontations between the regime and this movement.
In response to these slogans, Abdullah Saleh, the current dictatorial president of Yemen arrested hundreds of youths supporting the Houthi movement under the persuasion and pressure from the American embassy in Sana’a. Although Husayn al-Houthi had only proceeded with the cultural war, however, when the Yemen regime decided to physically eliminate him, in 2004, after three months of great resistance in the surrounding mountains of Sa’dah together with a group of his followers, Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi was martyred in a very tragic manner together with his family. When Sayyid Husayn al-Houthi was martyred in the course of his resistance against the regime, thousands of Yemeni youths joined this force and a widespread revolt took place in Yemen and from that time onwards, the title of al-Houthis changed to Ansarullah.
After the martyrdom of Husayn al-Houthi, his brother, Abdul-Malik assumed the leadership of this movement. In regards to the inclination of Abdul-Malik Badruddin al-Houthi to Iran, it must be said that during his sermons, while supporting the Iranian stance, he severally described the United States and Israel as the major enemies of Islam. Likewise, he also proclaimed his love for Imam Khomeyni, Ali Khamenei and Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah (the leader of the Hezbollah movement of Lebanon). Concerning the issue of anti-Semitism too, he considered the slogans of the Houthi movement; God is Great, Death to the United States, Death to Israel, Curse upon Israel and Victory is for Islam, to be in harmony with the discourse of the Islamic Revolution. (Ajarlu: www.borhan.ir)
By assuming the leadership of this movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi offered a new era to the life of Ansarullah of Yemen whereby after only six phases (2004-2010), an imposed war from the Yemen regime, helped in propelling the expansion of the sphere of this group’s influence from Sa’dah to the rest of Yemen. This expansion of the sphere of influence was greatly welcomed by the people of Yemen. At the present moment (2016) the above movement is considered to be the strongest political force amongst the other movements in this country.
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