Shia sectarianism and hate speech entrenches demands for designating Houthi as a terrorist group
Iran and its terrorist arms have wreaked havoc on the earth, penetrating many Arab and Islamic countries, militarily, security, economically, socially, and ideologically more dangerous.
Among those many subversive arms are the Houthi rebel militias, which have turned Yemen into a blood pool since they turned against the law seven years ago, killing civilians, orphaning children, throwing children into battle, displacing families, looting money and destroying the country.
Terrorist militias did not stop there, and they even attacked neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Even the world’s commercial and relief ships were not spared.
What is more dangerous is that Iran, through the Houthis, is entrenching sectarianism, spreading hate speech against Sunni Muslims and spreading Shia ideology inside Yemen by changing school curricula for children, obliterating Yemeni identity and traditions, and using a huge media arsenal to penetrate other Arab and Sunni Muslim countries.
Houthi terrorism
Houthi threats against neighboring countries continue by trying to target sensitive and vital areas and civilians, but these attempts fail, proving that they are a dangerous and terrorist group that must be confronted, so several countries have placed them on the terrorist list, and the United States is also moving to take the same step, the new administration revealed.
New sanctions
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that US administration officials are considering imposing new financial sanctions this week on the Houthi terrorist militia and its leaders who are supported by the Iranian mullahs regime.
The agency continued: “The Houthi terrorist militia has dealt President Joe Biden’s administration another foreign policy setback, launching cross-border drone and ballistic missile strikes targeting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates”.
US support for the UAE
The United States decided to send fighter and destroyer aircraft carrying fifth-generation guided missiles to Abu Dhabi to help the UAE counter Houthi attacks in Yemen.
According to a statement on the Pentagon’s website, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke on the phone with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss the recent Houthi attacks on the UAE.
US President Joe Biden praised the UAE military, saying in a press interview: “The UAE successfully deterred a Houthi-launched ballistic missile at dawn on Monday, noting that it had ordered Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to do whatever he could to deliver U.S. support to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and throughout the Gulf region”.
Biden noted that he communicates daily with UAE officials to discuss the recent Houthi threats, and emphasized US support for its friends in the region amid heightened security risks.
Shia incursion and hate speech
The people of Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon have bled and lost their lives as a result of Shia incursions and Iranian Shia hate speech, which have spread to their countries, and the people of the same homeland are being killed because of sectarianism. These practices have extended to targeting neighboring countries through Shia loyal to the Iranian regime, most recently the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Demands to Punish Houthi
Following the recent Houthi offensive, criticism of the U.S. administration’s policies that have threatened the region’s security has grown louder, demanding that Houthi militias be reinstated on terrorist lists.
“Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who has reiterated his commitment to pressing the Biden administration to quickly re-impose sanctions on the Houthis to stop their attacks”, On Twitter, he said the Houthis responded to the lifting of sanctions “in a timely and predictable manner by escalating their attacks and obstructing humanitarian access”.
Congressmen, including Republican Senator Jim Inhoff, a member of the Armed Forces Committee of the U.S. Congress, called for designating Houthi militias as a terrorist organization, condemning the attack on the United Arab Emirates.
On his Twitter account, he said: “The deadly attacks on our friends in the UAE show once again that the Iran-backed Houthis are terrorists”, he said. “As I pointed out last year, it was a mistake for the Biden administration to remove the Houthis from the terror list, and this designation should be restored now”.
US Republican Congressman Don Bacon condemned the Houthi terrorist attacks against civilian facilities in Abu Dhabi, pointing to the escalation of those operations since the removal of the group from the US terrorist list, calling on Biden to re-list the group, saying: “We must reinstate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization and stop Iran from sending weapons to Yemen”.
Speech escalation
As Houthi power grew with Iran’s support, narrow sectarian terms were used, but this conflict was previously not publicly apparent, and extremist sectarian rhetoric was confined to closed circles, but this began to change as the Yemeni conflict turned into a post-2011 civil war, and sectarian rhetoric was seen as a new and effective way to attract more fighters to join the ranks of both sides.
The Houthis have also contributed to poisoning the situation by using derogatory Shia expressions against their Sunni opponents, and local pro-Houthi radio stations have adopted unprecedented sectarian rhetoric. Houthi groups that entered Sanaa in September 2014 took control of mosques, and religious sermons have become a form of religious and social provocation against their opponents, not to mention the bombings of mosques, centers, and homes belonging to their political and religious opponents.
Sectarian rhetoric has escalated with each new step toward conflict, reaching its peak last September, when the Houthis called on their supporters in Sana’a to wage jihad in Taiz and Aden, framing the conflict as a holy war against perceived enemies of religion, rather than political opponents.
