Posts
Wed Mar 14, 2012
* Salafists
seen inspired by success of Egypt's al-Nour party
* New
party wants talks with Yemeni militants to end violence
* Fate
of new govt depends on securing stability
By Mohammed Ghobari
SANAA, March 14 (Reuters) -
Ultra-conservative Salafists in Yemen have formed their first political party,
urging recently elected President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to apply Islamic law to
all areas of life and to reject interference by foreign powers.
Salafis, ultra-orthodox even among
fundamentalist Muslims, have traditionally shunned politics. But the success of
the Salafi al-Nour party in Egypt, which won the second highest number of seats
in the first democratically-elected parliament in decades, may have changed
that.
Salafists in Yemen said their new
party would be called the Rashad Union.
"After
months of studying and discussing the necessity of immersion in the political
process, we have decided to found the Rashad Union," they said in a
statement, describing participation as a religious duty.
They also called for talks with
Sunni Islamist militants and northern Shi'ite rebels to end political upheaval
that has pushed Yemen to the brink of civil war.
"It
is necessary to open dialogue with the armed groups like Ansar al-Sharia and
the Houthis to get Yemen out of the cycle of violence," said Abdel Wahhab
al-Hamqani, one of the leaders of the Salafi movement.
Both Shi'ite Muslim rebels, known
as Houthis, and militant Sunni Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of
Islamic Law) have exploited weakened central government control to grab chunks
of the country over the past year.
COMPLEX PATCHWORK OF MILITANTS
The fate of Yemen's interim
government depends, at least in part, on how it deals with these two groups.
Although parliamentary elections
are not due to be held until 2014, the Rashad Union will be able to take part
in a national dialogue.
The dialogue was agreed as part of
a Gulf-brokered deal that allowed former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave
office after a year of protests against his rule.
The Salafi suggestion of
negotiating with the Houthis is unusual because they adhere to a hardline creed
that views Shi'ites as heretics. Houthis and Salafis have been fighting each
other on and off in the north of the country for months.
The Houthis, who have effectively
carved out a state-within-a-state for themselves along Yemen's border with
Saudi Arabia, have been invited to take part in the national dialogue. But the
government has said it will not engage with Ansar al-Sharia, which is inspired
by al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda itself is inspired by a
puritanical strain of Islam akin to that of the Salafis.
In statements posted on Islamist
forums by Ansar al-Sharia earlier this week, the militant group said its
exclusion from the dialogue and the Houthis' inclusion was inconsistent.
The Rashad Union will vie with
better established players on the Yemeni political scene, such as the
opposition Islamist Islah party and the General People's Congress (GPC), which
is headed by Saleh himself.
