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Arabia

Yemeni clerics call for presidential elections

2011-06-20

[Arab News] More than 100 influential religious holy mans and tribal leaders called for the Yemeni president's ouster and elections to choose a new leader, adding their weight to the opposition movement seeking to end nearly 33 years of autocratic rule by President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower.... The president, who has clung to power despite four months of protests, is undergoing treatment in neighboring Soddy Arabia for serious burns and other injuries from a June 3 attack on his palace in the capital, Sanaa. His allies insist he will return to the country within days and resume his duties. The holy mans' petition, obtained Saturday, demands elections within 60 days and says Saleh is unfit to return to his post. "President-for-Life Saleh ... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence... is unable to carry out his responsibilities. He must step down," the statement said. Among the petitioners is Sheik Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, the spiritual leader of the country's fundamentalist Islamic opposition party, Islah, and Yemen's most influential holy man. He has backed the anti-Saleh protesters since early on in the unrest. Others who have abandoned the Yemeni leader include top military commanders, powerful tribal chiefs and members of Saleh's ruling party. Many defected to the opposition in outrage at the killing of protesters. Yemen's crisis began when demonstrators inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia erupted into the streets in early February. The largely peaceful movement gave way to heavy street fighting when tribal militias took up arms in late May. Emboldened Islamic beturbanned goons have also seized on the expanding disorder to take control of towns in southern Yemen, adding to fears that the Al-Qaeda offshoot in the country could end up with even more room to operate freely.

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Arabia

Yemen court questions US Al-Qaeda suspect

2010-05-09

Yemeni authorities have begun questioning a US citizen suspected of being an Al-Qaeda militant who is accused of killing a guard as he tried to escape a hospital, a state-run website said on Thursday. Sharif Mobley, arrested in March along with 10 Al-Qaeda suspects, was handed over to a court in the capital Sanaa. He also faces charges of wounding another guard as he tried to shoot his way out of the hospital where he was being treated, the Yemeni Defense Ministry website said. Yemen became a major Western security concern after the Yemen-based regional arm of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December. A Yemeni official has said Mobley may have had links to a Nigerian man who was behind the Dec. 25 plane bombing attempt. Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., a US company which owns several nuclear power plants, said in March that Mobley, 26, worked at nuclear reactors in 2002-2008, doing routine labor work. Mobley had been in Yemen for at least a year, first studying Arabic at a language institute before attending a university run by prominent hard-line Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, an official said after his arrest. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man suspected of being behind the Dec. 25 attack, had visited Yemen to study Arabic and Islam and had had contact with radical US-born Muslim preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki, who is based in the impoverished Arab country. Awlaki was also linked to a US Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people at a base in Texas in November. Western allies and neighboring Saudi Arabia fear Al-Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen on many fronts to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.

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Arabia

Yemen creates 'virtue and vice' committee

2008-07-22

Yemen's conservative leaders, Islamist opposition and tribal leaders have formed an "unnatural" alliance to fight growing depravity, local newspapers said on Wednesday. Known as the "Committee for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice" -- reminiscent of that backed by the religious police in neighboring Saudi Arabia -- the group was formed late on Tuesday at a meeting in the Yemeni capital. Delegates, united under the slogan "May the ship (Yemen) not sink," expressed alarm at what they said was growing depravity in society, including drinking of alcohol, mixing of sexes in schools, "depraved" television shows and uncontrolled access to the Internet. They also denounced the "sex trade" and use of drugs, without however mentioning the widespread, traditional chewing of qat, a mildly intoxicating leaf. Some Yemenis see this as a major social problem, undermining the economies of many households and affecting the efficiency of the country's work force. The committee is chaired by Sheikh Abdul Majid Al-Zindani who is wanted by the U.S. authorities on charges of supporting terrorism.

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Arabia

US asks Yemen to jug Zindani

2006-02-24

The United States has officially asked Yemen to arrest a prominent scholar whom Washington accuses of funneling funds to terror groups, Yemeni state media said yesterday. Sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani, 56, is listed by the United Nations and the United States as one of the financiers of terror activities. “The American side has asked the Yemeni government to arrest Sheikh Al-Zindani, freeze his assets and prevent him from traveling abroad,” said the Defense Ministry’s newspaper ‘26 September’. And keep him away from cell phones. Quoting official sources, the paper said President Ali Abdullah Saleh has received a message from US President George W. Bush in which he criticized Saleh for letting Al-Zindani join the official delegation that accompanied him to the OIC summit held in Makkah last December. “The message noted that Al-Zindani is listed on the UN list of terror financiers, and that taking him abroad as part of an official delegation is a violation of the UN resolutions,” said the paper. It added that Bush warned Saleh that such personal ties with Al-Zindani “could harm joint efforts of both countries (US and Yemen) and their partnership in the fight against terrorism.” According to the report, the Yemeni government asked the United States to present “clear evidence” proving the charges against Al-Zindani before Yemen could take any measure against him. So that Zindani can kill the ones who squealed on him. The US Treasury Department added Al-Zindani in February 2004 to the list of people suspected of supporting terrorist activities, dubbing him as “a loyalist to Osama Bin Laden and supporter of Al-Qaeda.” It accused him of playing a key role in the purchase of weapons on behalf of the terror network and other terrorists. A senior Yemeni government official said yesterday that the government could take any measure against Al-Zindani except handing him over to the United States. “Whatever happens, we would not hand him over to the Americans. It is against our constitution,” the official told Arab News, asking anonymity. "And you know how important the law is to a Yemeni!" Al-Zindani, who chairs the central committee of Yemen’s biggest opposition party (Islah), has abruptly changed his flamboyant ways of speech and now rarely attends public meetings after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US. The United States accuses Al-Zindani, who runs Sanaa-based Al-Iman Islamic University, of supporting “terrorist causes”.

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Arabia

Yemen Urges US to Remove Zindani From Terror List

2005-09-24

Yemen has officially asked the United States to drop the name of a prominent Yemeni cleric from a list of suspected financiers of terrorism, the official Saba news agency reported yesterday. “The Republic of Yemen has sent a letter to the US administration asking it to drop charges against Sheikh Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani,” said the agency. In February 2004, the US Treasury Department added Al-Zindani, 55, to the list of people suspected of supporting terrorist activities, dubbing him as “a loyalist to Osama Bin Laden and supporter of Al-Qaeda.” It accused him of recruiting for Al-Qaeda training camps and playing a key role in the purchase of weapons on behalf of the terror network and other terrorists. Yemen, however, insisted in its official letter that “most of the information upon which the US charges were based might have been taken from intriguer partisan newspapers,” said Saba. “If any proofs against Sheikh Al-Zindani exist, they should be submitted to the Yemeni government, which would carry its responsibility and take the necessary legal actions,” read the letter, quoted by Saba. Zindani, an outspoken cleric, is chairman of the central committee of Yemen’s biggest opposition party, Islah.

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