Fighting for Freedom -The Houthis catch Yemen’s imagination

Formerly shun by the public as a result of state propaganda and latent sectarianism under the old regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Houthis - a Shiite group which stronghold is originally based in the northern province of Sa’ada – have caught Yemen’s imagination by storm as they have come to symbolize freedom and unyielding defiance before injustice.

Born out of reaction to state oppression in 1994, the northern faction was named after its spiritual father, Sheikh  Hussein Badreddin Al Houthi, a man whose life was forfeited much too early when Yemen’s armed forces cowardly besieged his home and sought to destroy the Houthi movement by assassinating him in 2004.

A prominent Shiite religious leader and keen politician, Sheikh Hussein Badreddin Al Houthi, devoted his life to his people, intent on defending those he had sworn to protect, no matter the cost or sacrifice. One of Yemen’s early freedom fighter, Sheikh Al Houthi not only inspired by his refusal to abide and bow to a tyrant’s rule an entire people, he planted the seed of a movement which two decades later will come to sweep through Yemen highlands, baring within a promise of change.

Under the leadership of Sheikh Abdel-Malek Al Houthi, the Houthis have grown well beyond a simple local resistance group. A regional power with national traction and a strong political base since the establishment of its political arm, Ansar Allah, the faction has proven to be a much stronger socio-political catalyst than first anticipated by the central government.

Often denigrated by Yemen’s broader political class because of its insistence to proclaim its Shiite root and celebrate its attachment to Islamic tradition, the Houhis have nevertheless came to incarnate a new political order in the impoverished nation, one based on social justice, religious freedom and equalities, very much in the same line as Iran 1979 Islamic Revolution.

It is the Houthis’ support of 2011 Islamic Awakening in Yemen which first brought the group to the forefront of the political arena, when after two decades spent in the shadows of dissent and state repression, the Shiite group was eventually set free. Determined to capitalize on such historical opportunity, the Houthis have worked tirelessly toward their political and social goals, intent on building a new Yemen according to a new set of values, away from the nefarious influence of Saudi Arabia and Islamic radicalism.

It is the Houthis’ very stance against radicalism and sectarianism which has provoked Salafis’ ire. Organized for the most part under the political umbrella of Al Islah, Yemen’s very own Sunni radical party, Salafis have since 1994 attempted to lay waste Shia Islam from Yemen highlands as to create a buffer for Saudi Arabia and appease its royals’ irrational fear of Shiite Muslims.

As the Houthis exponentially gained in strength and prominence, often challenging Al Islah in areas it thought it had under its complete control, Salafi militants and their affiliates, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Ahmar tribe, aimed since 2011 to break the Shiite group, threatened as they were by the group’s popularity.

First blood was drawn in the northern city of Dammaj on October 30, when Houthi militants launched a furious assault against Yemen’ Salafis, determined to wash the land of their forefathers from such religious aberration. A religious ideology based on hate, vengeance and bloodshed, Salafism, like its sister, Wahhabism, is nothing but a tool used by Zionists to destroy Islam from within, by striking at the very foundation of its belief system. It is essentially such evil and perversion which the Houthis have set out to destroy.

Interestingly enough, the further the Houthis have pushed their advances onto Salafis and Islahi control territories, the more evident Islamists’ true agenda have become, as their covert games of manipulations were put under a magnifying glass. No longer the puppet master of Yemen’s political game, Sunni radicals have seen their public base wear forever thinner as fear of reprisals by Yemen’s mightiest were replaced by the hope of a new beginning under the Houthi banner.

When news broke out in February that Houthi militants had successfully taken over Al Ahmar’ s Amran stronghold, the very siege of the tribe, the Shiite group’s victory over one of Yemen’s most prominent and powerful tribal factions was met by a torrent of joy. Across the country, beyond all geographical, political or religious barriers, Yemenis found themselves united in such a victory against oppression; when a minority came to overpower a multitude, by the sheer strength of its resolve.

With its men firmly based some 20 kilometres away from the capital, Sana’a, the Houthis have transcended Yemen’s dreams of freedom by their staunch defiance. Bent on asserting their people’s rights, Yemenis’ rights, the Houthis have taken on the biggest fight of all by challenging Islamists’ hold over Yemen.

While the rise of the Houthis has been understood as a threat by the international community as it comes in opposition of its plan for the Arabian Peninsula, the Shiite group has so far proven to be more resilient to attacks and more cohesive in its structure than the government. At a time when Al Qaeda poses such a menace to national security, one can easily understand why the majority of Yemenis feel drawn to the Houthis, in search of a strong leadership.

Moreover, the only faction which seems so far to have been able to forge amicable ties with Al Harak, the Southern Secessionist Movement, the Houthis should rather than a threat be considered a key ally in brokering a national truce and reaching a political agreement whereby the nation would finally implement change on the ground without fears of dissidence and instability.

Far from being the threat Al Islah is portraying to galvanize state support, playing into President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s fears of a coup d’etat, the Houthis have the means to bring stability back to Yemen highlands and to an extent the entire nation through its opposition of Sunni radicalism.