During the last few months, Yemen Times received an enormous number of requests to publish a report on Islamic movements worldwide in general and in Yemen in particular. Hence, starting from this week, we start a series of articles about Islamic movements.
In this issue, we will be presenting the "Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon" Islamic movement. Here we will be explaining how the movement started and evolved and will also be covering all aspects of the movement in terms of it's activities and beliefs.

A Brief Historical Background on Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon
The Ikhwan Islamic movement is the strongest and most popular Islamic movement in Yemen and in the world. The movement is based on calling upon Muslims to return to Islam in conformity with the Holy book of Allah (Quran) and to the prophet Mohammed's (SAS) teachings. It calls for the implementation of all Islamic laws and regulations (Sharia) in all aspects of life. The movement stands against what it calls the extension of secularism into the Arab and Islamic world.
Before moving on to discuss Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon's movement in Yemen, we need to have a thorough idea about its background, which takes us to its country of origin, Egypt.
The movement was founded by Sheikh Hassan Al-Banna, who lived from 1906-1949. The actual movement was started in 1941 in Egypt, and initially had 100 members chosen by Al-Banna himself.
In 1948, Mahmoud Fahmi Al-Niqrashi, then the Prime Minister of Egypt, ordered the dissolution of the Ikhwan movement, confiscating its properties and arresting its main leaders. In December 1948, Al-Niqrashi was assassinated, and most fingers were pointed to the Ikhwan movement as the ones who planned and carried out the assassination. During his funeral, Al-Niqrashi supporters called for revenge against Al-Banna, who was assassinated less than three months later in February 1949.
In 1950, Al-Nahhas's government released all members of the Ikhwan movement based on a verdict by the State Council, which ruled in favor of the movement stating that the initial dissolving of the movement by the earlier government was illegitimate.
On 23 July 1952, a number of prominent Egyptian army officers led by Mohammed Najeeb ignited the July Revolution with the assistance of the Ikhwan movement. However, after the success of the coup, the Ikhwan refused to participate in the forthcoming government unless they had some direct control over the state's policies. Gamal Abdulnasser, by then the President of the Republic of Egypt , considered this condition to be a means of controlling the revolutionary government, resulting in tensions between the two parties until the government arrested many of the Ikhwan leaders and displaced thousands of activists of the Ikhwan movement on the grounds that it tried to assassinate Abdulnasser at Al-Manshiyye in Alexandria. The government executed six of the movement's leaders, Abdulkadir O'da, Mohamed Farghali, Yusuf Tal'at, Hindawi Duwair, Ibrahim Al-Tayyib, and Mohamed Abdullatif.
During 1965-1966, the campaign against the movement gathered momentum resulting in the torture and execution of 3 of its leaders, including Said Qutb (1906-1966), who was considered the second leader of the movement after Al-Banna. Qutb was one of the most prominent Islamic intellectuals still respected by Muslims everywhere until today. He was arrested in 1954 and was in prison for 10 years until he was released upon the intervention of the then President of Iraq, Abdulsalam Arif. However, it was not long before he was imprisoned once again and faced the death penalty along with Yusuf Hawwash and Abulfattah Ismail, who were all executed in 1966.
There were also a number of leading Ikhwan figures that became prominent in other countries in the region. Dr. Mustafa Al-Sayyaghi (1915-1964) was among the founders of the Ikhwan movement in Syria. Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Sawwaf was the leading figure of the Ikhwan movement in Iraq. In Jordan, Abdullatif Abu Qawra represented the Ikhwan movement in 1945.
Coming to Yemen, the most prominent Yemeni Ikhwan leader was Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Zubairi, who founded Hizbullah in Barat (near Saada) in 1965, three years after the Yemeni revolution in the north.

Ideologies and Policies of the Ikhwan Movement
The connection of the Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon movement to Islam is all inclusive and never leaves any single issue in Islam without implementation. The Ikhwan movement believes in the importance of having their movement active globally through bureaus and representatives all over the world. Hassan Al-Banna sums up a the movement in one sentence "a Salafi identity, a Sunni movement, a Sufi fact, a diplomatic structure, a sport group, scientific and cultural league, an economic legacy, and a social vision." Al-Banna states that the policy of Al-Ikhwan movement includes:
1- Staying away from disreputable issues
2- Avoiding arrogance and being dominated by others
3- Not being involved in any political or party-oriented establishments
4- Concentration on gradual growth and capacity building
5- Preference for practical work over propaganda and promotional publicity
6- Focusing on the younger generations (explaining the movement's ideas to the youth)
7- Concentrating on rural areas in spreading the movement's ideologies.

Al-Banna also described the special characteristics of the movement as follows:
- Divine, because the main objective of the movement is to let Muslims come closer to Allah.
- Global, because it targets all Muslims and non-Muslims alike, with no difference whatsoever of any human over the other, except for faith
- Islamic, because it is based on Islam.

Al-Banna also adds that the requirements that should be met by a faithful and committed member of the movement are that he must:
1- sincerely work on reforming himself so as to be:
- a person of high morals;
- healthy;
- educated;
- capable of understanding his creed appropriately;
- a devout worshipper of Allah
2- be capable of establishing a Muslim family that would appreciate and respect his ideology and also abide by all Islamic regulations and rules.
3- work on guiding people to do good deeds within society and fight all sinful behavior, by first serving as an example for others, and then by advising the people in the community.
4- Liberate the nation from foreign non-Islamic occupation or domination in either political, cultural, or ideological senses.
5- Reform the government so as to make it truly Islamic and apply the rules and regulations of Islam in all aspects of life.
6- Work on uniting the Islamic nations under one rule, so as to return to the once strong Islamic state with all its previous glory.
7- Spread Islam all over the world, so as to avoid sedition or conspiracy among the Muslim nation, and to make Islam the global and only religion in the world.

Ideologies and Creeds: related Concepts of Al-Ikhwan
Al-Ikhwan used and adapted the Salafi movement's concepts of:
- calling for the use of practical evidence to convince non-Muslims to adapt Islam and muslims to strengthen their faith in their religion
- Stressing the importance of the main sources of Islam's regulations, the Holy Quran and the prophet's life, so as to refrain from any sort of worshipping of any other God but Allah and to arrive at the ultimate level of faithfulness.
The Ikhwan movement was influenced by the movement of Sheikh of Mohammed bin Abdulwahhab, the Sinoosiyye movement, and the movement of Rushd Ridha. These three movements are mostly an extension of Ahmed bin Hanbal's teachings.
Al-Banna had adapted all the previously Islamic concepts in his movement, and added to them what was needed in his own time and environment. He stood against all the various currents flowing at the time in the Arab region and particularly in Egypt.
To be continued next week:
Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon in Yemen

Taiz Bureau
Yemen Times
Under the patronage of Taiz Governor, Ahmed Al-Jahri and under the motto "Freedom of Creativity is a Reinforcement for Democracy and Modernization", the Taiz branch of the Author's Union launched its seventh conference, last Wednesday, January 24 at the Cultural Center in Taiz City.
Izzeddin Saeed presented the Taiz union branch's report, which included financial, cultural, and administrative details of the branch's activities during the last year. Later on, Dr. Abdulkareem Qassim of the supervisory committee and Dr. Ahmed Hammad Abdullah representing civil society unions and parties, emphasized the positive role of the branch in promoting free speech and democracy. They both encouraged authors in Taiz and everywhere to reflect creativity in their writings and strengthen their viewpoint to reflect the democratic values of the freedom of expression.
The conference's working session started with the approval of a list of nominees for the various posts within the union's branch. The general secretary of the branch read out the nominations, and a democratic process of electing the new secretary and representatives began. At the end of the session, poll results were announced, declaring the members who would be appointed as representatives. This was followed by a discussion of the report of the objections committee along with the concluding resolutions and decisions of the union's branch.
At the end of the conference, Mohamed Al-A'nsi, deputy assistant of the governor, stressed in his speech on behalf of the governorate, the importance of the union's role in addressing issues of great significance for authors in Taiz. He wished the branch great success in its activities, and hoped that the conference would come out with substantial decisions that would promote the role of not only the Taiz branch of the union, but the entire union with all its branches.

Rajeh Yahya al-Romaim, 35, is from Mathbah, Bani al-Hareth. Eight years ago he used to work for the Ministry of Agriculture. Rajeh has been exposed to a great series of misery and repression. Since 1993, he was shut in prison without any legal warrant. Some persons backed up by strong connections plotted a well-calculated plan to throw him in prison, exercised pressure on judges to convict him of a charge he knew nothing about and fabricated a verdict sentencing him to death. Rajeh's only mistake is that he is a citizen with no strong "back-up"- meaning connections. His strategically located land was the very reason behind all this. However, he has never given up. He went through a long ordeal asserting his innocence, applying all means to prove it. He wrote letters to many human rights organizations, many newspapers, many top officials, the Justice Minister, the President, drew pictures, and finally he made it. The appeal court passed two verdicts that acquitted him of the fabricated charge and ordered his release.
Eight years after he was arrested and sent to prison, he came to face the full weight of reality awaiting him and it was a harsh and daunting reality; his family, consisting of four children and his wife, had been destroyed, his children expelled from school due to financial problems, his land confiscated and now, all he had earned in his life was gone.
In May 15, 2000 issue 20, YT wrote about his case and appealed for an investigation into it. He was finally released on 20.11.2000, although this was after losing everything.
Yemen Times in this report attempts to shed light on this flagrant violation of human rights and is pinning high hopes on the humanitarian organizations and those of human rights to extend a helping hand to Mr. Rajeh. Yemen Times also calls upon the authorities concerned to give Mr. Rajeh his land back so as to prove we are living in a democratic and transparent state where all the people are equal before the law.

Rajeh talked about how the tragedy started and said "I had a plot of land, 30 "Lebnah" in the street of Mathbah-Dhola'a, above the roundabout of the university and I sold it to a brigadier in Khawlan called S. A. S. A. I received YR 200,000 although at the time its value would have reached YR5 million. The brigadier assured me that I would receive the rest of the money after he built a wall around the land. However, brigadier H. F. Sh. came to say that he had an order from the President granting him my land. Later it was discovered that the land granted was in Jabal Mathbah and was not my land. However, this claimant found my land to be in such a good location that he made up his mind to take it. He came along with his son to fight with the S. A. S. A. However, his son T. H. F. was killed in an exchange of fire."Mr. Rajeh talks about the calamities he underwent and said "On 28.9.1993 and while I was with my family at home, a group of soldiers from the Pending Investigation Office broke into my house in Mathbah. They were not wearing uniforms. They told me that I had to go with them for questioning. On reaching there H. F. , the father of the murdered, charged S. A. S. A. of killing his son. However, after some time things started to have a new complexion and they began to accuse me of killing him.
For a month and a half I was kept in detention in the Pending Investigations Office. I appealed and asked for reasons, but to no avail . After this period the office made a report acquitting me and confirming that I was not at the crime scene.
After the issuing of this report, the strong connections of the accuser made the officer of the Pending Investigations Office, at the time A. W. al. change the report. Consequently, I was transferred to the prosecution on 14.11.1993. Some of my relatives were also imprisoned with me. On 2.1.1994 the prosecution acquitted me of the charge, ordering my immediate release. The prosecution also convicted S. A. S. A. who was out of the reach of the law and M. S. A. who was arrested and tried with me. However, again the accuser's connections interfered, and stopped this order. In an attempt at suppression, the prosecution director at the time, A. M. H. along with M. B, fabricated a report against me with the other two convicted persons.
After that I was presented to court in 1994. Judge H. al-R. was at the time the head of the Preliminary Court of Bani al-Hareth. After holding some sessions the judge found that there was no evidence for convicting me. Therefore, he issued a verdict to release me on bail. However, at the very next session I found that the judge had canceled his verdict. When I pleaded with the judge for his sense of justice and mercy, he told me "I swear son, the court has no hand and no power in this." I shouted and they arrested my old father and my uncle, put them in custody and didn't release them until they paid YR 20,000. Since then they have been trying me in absence.
Sessions went on and the case was adjourned for the passing of the verdict at the end of 1994. However, the case was shelved until the middle of 1995. Later I found that the accuser supported by his strong connections was trying to force the judge to sentence me to death. Because he refused to comply to their pressure, he was sacked. Another judge called A. N. al-H. was appointed despite the fact that this was against the judicial laws. I protested but again no-one heeded me. Soon the verdict was passed, sentencing me to death on 19.11.1995.

When my children heard the death sentence, they were dazed and fainted. They were expecting me to go home with them. However, I was sent back to the Central Prison. Out of despair, I began writing on the walls of the Prison a sentence "A nation where right is lost, justice devastated, law broken down, turns into a haven for monsters, a shelter for the corrupt and thieves."After that, I appealed against the verdict in the appeal court until 27.7.1997 when the appeal court judge Hussain al-Mahdi in the capital secretariat passed a verdict acquitting me of the charge. The case was then transferred to the Supreme Court and it was pending there from 27.7.1997 to 6.6.1999. For two years I was again in prison with no one to set me free after my innocence had been proved and the verdict passed. The conspiracy was carried out on the telephone, a plot of which I was unaware. However, I was amazed again to hear that the case was to be transferred again to the appeal court under the pretext that one of the judges did not attend one of the sessions during the trial. By what laws and by what ethical and moral principles was all this going on!
Then sessions were again held in the appeal court whose chief judge at the time was Saeed al-Qata'a. He on 20.2.2000 passed the verdict acquitting me and ordering my immediate release. However, I was not set free until 1.10.2000. So even when the courts asserted that I was innocent and verdicts were passed in the appeal court acquitting me of the charges, the laws of the country were too weak to be implemented. After eight years of imprisonment, they came to tell me it was over. You go!
So as to go on with their attacks against me, they referred my case to the Military Unit in the Supreme Court which in a face saving action noted that I had been convicted and that 8 years imprisonment was enough and that I was to be released. When I tried to appeal against this, they turned down my petition of appeal.
Now my odyssey has not ended. I realized that my incarceration was a well-calculated plan to take away my land and to show that an ordinary citizen like me has no rights but has to bear and accept every thing high people do to me. Recently, I was told that high ranking mediation is going on to divide my land between the other two parties who were the reason behind my suppression for the simple reason that I am a citizen with no strong people to back me up. The only virtue of the long term imprisonment is that I memorized the Holy Qura'an."
Of the situation of prisoners in the prison, he said "The word "violations" is not the proper word to use. Rather, human rights are trampled inside the prison. Prisoners suffer miserable conditions, are humiliated, and sometimes barbarous acts are committed by the prison officials. This is the ever occurring story in the prison. There is a flagrant disregard and contempt of human dignity and rights. All this is not only a violation of the universal standards of human rights and human dignity but also makes a mockery of all efforts to struggle for a free and democratic Yemen.
To see your child and touch him and kiss your kid, you have to pay. To see your wife you have to pay around (YR2000-YR3000) and they will provide you a filthy room not at all suitable for human beings.
Food is very bad and is not at all fit for humans. If rich prisoners do not come to help those who are poor, there would be a famine in the prison. Water is polluted. Many times we have found dead cats in water basins. When some committees come to the prison to check things, the administration conduct cleaning campaigns, provide us with good food. Many a prisoner is sent to prison and is kept there for years during the investigation phase and no one dares to raise his voice. Some others have ended their terms, yet they are still in prison."
At the end of his account Mr. Rajeh said "I appeal to you, the Yemen Times, to convey my message to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the only person who could do something to liberate me from the disasters that have befallen me and give me my land back. I have knocked on all doors and sought justice but could not find it. I also appeal to all human rights organizations to interfere, protect me and extend to me a helping hand."

As Investigations in the USS Cole Continue
Too much missing information

Yemen Times Staff,
Aden
The USS Cole bombing along with the explosion incidents that rocked Aden City have caused a lot of concern among the public in that this may signal the start of a battle between certain radical Islamist groups and the security forces. Public interpretation of these actions are identical in that they are aimed at pressuring the government to release the USS Cole suspects, and create chaos and confusion among the security forces and local and international investigation units. This widely accepted interpretation comes at a time when security forces are exerting even more pressure on Islamic movements and intensifying arrest campaigns all over the country. The bombings that were carried out on the eve of the New Year resulted in the quick and unprecedented decision of arresting all who were thought to belong to the Jihad Islamic movement, even if they were not involved in any way with the bombings. Tens of individuals were arrested as part of the arrest campaign that are still continuing today.
This comes at a time when police forces and local investigative bureaus are on their highest alert, and security is being tightened around Political Security Office (PSO) locations, in which the accused in the USS Cole incident are being interrogated. During last week, a number of high-ranking security officials were dismissed. Among these officials were 4 prominent officials, including the head of the Buraiqa Police Department, the official responsible for ensuring security in the Buraiqa area, which is where the USS Cole incident took place. Three heads of investigative units in Aden were also dismissed, as well as the Courts' Security Manager.
This comes as a threatening message to the radical Islamists who carried out the different bombings in Aden. This also is seen to be an indication that the government will have no mercy in punishing the ones behind the USS Cole incident, surely with capital punishment.
A number of US security officials joined local investigative bureaus in their inspections of the areas where the latest explosion incidents took place.
All of these actions precede the court hearings to be launched in Aden soon. The date of the hearings is yet to be announced, and according to government officials, it will most probably be announced only hours before the actual court hearings start. Only the highest authority in the country i.e., the President of the Republic can decide the date of the court hearings.
According to official sources in Aden, the files of the suspects (from 6 to 8 men) are 80% ready for processing. The General Attorney, whose chairman and deputy participated in the different interrogation procedures with the suspects, have a clear background about all the suspects. They even have received the files of the suspects before reinvestigation, which was demanded by the USA according to the agreement signed between the two countries.
The most important questions that are to be asked regarding this issue are,
"Were the US investigators satisfied with the interrogation and investigation procedures carried out so far? Did they get all the information they required to come to a certain conclusion?" If the answer to these question is "YES", then the court hearings are not expected to take long, as all the remaining steps will be of a judicial nature and will be carried out by the Yemeni judge.
However, the reward announced in many newspapers, including Yemen Times, which offers up to $5 million in return for any key information regarding the ones behind the incident, is in itself an obvious indication that the suspects are not necessarily the actual culprits. Hence, it may be too premature to assume that the hearings will end quickly with a final and decisive sentence.
A family member of one of the suspects stated on condition of anonymity that he was not allowed to visit the suspect, who was arrested on the 6th of October. He also mentioned that he was arrested for no reason after going to the police station of his own will, and was since then considered among the main suspects.
Until this very moment, there seems to be no extra security measures taken at the court in which the hearings will take place. However, a Yemeni official stated that the court hearings will be held at the Aden Appeal Court building, which is a white building surrounded by the sea from one side, and by the mountain that surrounds Crater from the other three sides, making it an easy target for terrorist acts. For this reason, several Yemeni security officials expressed their concern about the location of the two-storey building, which was originally built during British colonial rule prior to 1967, and demanded holding the court hearings in another location. However, according to officials in Aden, until this very moment, the decision to hold the hearings in another location has not been made.

Observers say that despite the claim of the concerned security officials, the location will be safe if appropriate security measures are taken, as planned, to protect the building from any potential threat from all four sides, and hence the court hearings could be held with confidence.