When I met the Houthi rebel leaders in Yemen in 2014 at a high school graduation ceremony to celebrate the most accomplished students in Yemen, they had us repeatedly chant, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse on the Jews and Victory to Islam.” That slogan captures the fanatical psychology and ideology of the Houthis, the Yemen-based and Iran-backed Shia Islamist rebel militia.
Having lived and studied in the United States for almost eight years (I am now a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota), my new outside vantage point has helped me to clarify my understanding of the Houthis and the threat they represent, not just to Yemen but to American interests in the region.
At my high school graduation where I met with those Houthi rebel leaders, I felt their genuine belief that they are descendants of the prophetic family and, on that basis, are entitled by Allah to rule all of Yemen. All other Yemenis — who are not part of that prophetic lineage and who, as Sunni Muslims, represent 75% of the population of Yemen — will, if the Houthis prevail, be condemned to live under a tyrannical theocratic regime controlled completely by the Houthis.
The Houthi ideology is rooted in an embrace of Islamism, a politicized form of Islam that was, in part, conceived as jihadism in Egypt by Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The underlying principles of Salafi jihadism can be seen in other Islamic movements, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Much of the Houthis’s power behind that ideology is found in their close ties with Iran.
An understanding of the Houthis is important to not only better understand the current tensions in the Red Sea, where the United States is now seeking to protect vital shipping lanes from Houthi attacks, but to also see manifestations in Yemen of Iran’s broader ambitions in the Middle East.
With external support from Iran, the Houthis have seized the capital of Yemen and now control the northern provinces through brute force (torture and executions are common). Part of the power of the Houthi movement comes from a large and powerful tribe within Yemen. A combination of that tribal power, support from Iran, and a religious zealotry fueled by Islamism, where death in the struggle for Yemen leads to an immediate ascension into heaven, all make the Houthis a formidable force against the Yemeni government, even with robust support from Saudi Arabia for that government.
It is important to distinguish Islam, a spiritual religion, from Islamism, a politicized and militarized ideology that embraces, and even celebrates, violence to spread that ideology.
In addition to the use of violence, the Houthis propagate their ideology through systematic indoctrination. When the Houthis seized the northern provinces of Yemen, they replaced the school curriculum with an Islamist curriculum, believing that it is necessary for the salvation of the Yemeni people.
Unfortunately, the Houthis are just one of several Islamist groups in Yemen. Even in the southern provinces, other extremist Islamists also seek to enforce their ideology through violence and indoctrination.
Ironically, the Houthis had long been preparing for their “Arab Spring” because prior to their revolt they felt oppressed by the Yemeni government because they did not have the right to practice their form of religion. The Houthis are now retaliating by seeking to brutally impose their minority religious understanding on all of Yemen.
As a Yemeni myself, the strife in my country is painful and heartbreaking. Due to this conflict, Yemen is suffering from one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. Although exact counts are not possible, the civilian death toll resulting from this conflict is likely around 400,000. The country is entrenched in a seemingly endless civil war over sectarian differences, perhaps analogous to the bloody European wars of religion which started soon after the Reformation began in 1517 and which did not end for over a century.
The solution?
There is no quick or easy solution. With the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which largely ended the European wars of religion, and with the slow embrace of Enlightenment principles — which made individual rights, such as freedom of religion and free speech, primary — Europe found sectarian peace, though of course secular and other ideological wars continued in Europe into the 20th century. The point is that fundamental societal change is usually slow, especially when it comes to religion.
Christians came to embrace freedom of religion and freedom of speech as a way to help ensure that minorities and the majority could peacefully coexist, not only over sectarian differences but, ideally, over secular differences as well. Religion is a sacred personal matter and the government should be both secular and maintain absolute separation from individual religious choices and practices. When religion is intertwined with the government, both are more likely to be corrupted.
[image_caption]Abdulrahman Bindamnan[/image_caption]
Abdulrahman M. Bindamnan is a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota and contributing author for Psychology Today.
