Houthi seeks to prevent Tarawih prayers – Yemen rejects militia practices
The government of Yemen on Saturday condemned the attacks by Houthi militias on mosques in areas under its control as a blatant, unprecedented violation of freedom of religion and belief.
The Yemeni government, through its Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Muammar al-Eryani, denounced the campaigns launched by the Houthi terrorist militia, supported by Iran, to prevent Tarawih prayers from taking place and turning mosques into headquarters of listening to the lectures of their master.
Al-Eryani posted a video on his Twitter account, showing armed groups of Houthi militias led by Mohammed Al-Darwish storming the Iman Mosque in Nuqum, the kidnapped capital of Sanaa.
He described the storming of the mosque as criminal practices that are an extension of the attempts of Houthi terrorist militias to impose their alien sectarian ideas and beliefs imported from Iran on areas under their control by force and force of arms.
These Houthi crimes target sectarian diversity and undermine the principle of co-existence among Yemeni society’s centuries-old sects, he said.
Al-Eryani called on the Organization of the Islamic World, scholars and preachers in Yemen and Arab and Islamic countries, as well as human rights organizations, to condemn the Houthi militias’ attacks on mosques and prevent worshippers from performing Tarawih prayers and other rites, in a blatant and unprecedented violation of the right to worship and freedom of religion and belief.
Since the beginning of Ramadan, Houthi militias have stormed several mosques, particularly in Sanaa and Amran, to prevent Tarawih prayers and replace them with recorded speeches by militia leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Through the so-called “Waqf Commission” and “Guidance Office” in Sanaa and Ibb, Houthi militias have been directed to delay the Maghreb prayer call by several minutes from the usual date during Ramadan in order to impose their beliefs on the need to cover the night and see the stars, which is the latest Houthi invention to violate freedom of belief.
The Houthi militia’s abuses have been met with widespread societal rejection and many consider them alien sects to Yemeni society and practices that fuel sectarian and religious war in the country.
