Houthis violating sanctity of Yemen's mosques
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."
