[Archives:1998/18/Press Review]

AL-WAHDAWI: Sanaa weekly, 28-4-98.
(Nasserite Unionist Party)   Main Headline:
1- Ministry of Interior identifies 150 suspects – including tribal sheikhs and army and police officers – connected to kidnapping incidents. The list of names was submitted to parliament.
2- Three died and several people injured when police broke up a peaceful demonstration in Mukallah. A number of opposition figures are under arrest.
3- Leader of a major fundamentalist Islamic group, Sheikh Moqbil Al-Wadi’: “Democracy is a sacrilege and the constitution is not worth an onion.” He also attacked journalists in a speech at his stronghold in Saada.
4- Senior military officers affirm granting the US access to Yemeni ports and other facilities.
Article Summary:
Another Algeria in Yemen?
By Mohammed Al-Sabri
The Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) was quick in strongly condemning the bomb explosion that occurred immediately following the Friday prayers in a Sanaa mosque. This incident, the 6th during April, is the most dangerous of its kind as it raises many frightening questions.
The struggle over the control of mosques is not something new. The state uses some Islamic groups against other more extremists cliques. Thus mosques have become a vital part in politics. After unification, political conditions dictated that the Islamists should form a political party, despite that being against their principles – Islam does not condone the polarization of the nation into different parties. The political struggle then became fiercer as the religious cover fell off. Following the demise of the Socialist party, different Islamist group found themselves fighting each other of fighting the government.

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