Press Review [Archives:2000/23/Press Review]

ASHUMOA’ (Independent, weekly, 27th May):

Ba Jammal’s Statements Widely Denounced
“Several [religion] scholars expressed their wonder and condemnation of the statements made by Mr. Abdul Qader Ba Jammal, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs during his press conference last Wednesday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which he said that Yemen agrees to religious normalization or normalization of relations between religions.
President Saleh had on several occasions stressed this steadfast position of Yemen; of which his Wednesday interview with Al-Jazeerah TV Channel was only the latest.
During a number of phone calls Their Eminence told this newspaper that this position taken by Mr. Ba Jammal is very dangerous as it completely contradicts in part and parcel the principles of the true religion, reminding of the Holy Koran verse: ‘Don’t have Jews and Christians as friends. They associate among themselves; and those who associate with them are the same as them’ and the other holy verse, ‘Jews and Christians shall not be pleased with you unless you embrace their religion.

The Knight the Nation Lost
On the 11th anniversary of the death of Adnan Khairullah, AL-EHYA’A AL-ARABI (Ba’ath party, pro-Iraq faction, weekly 29th May) ran a special story. It concluded its article by:
“Thank God. Thanks at the beginning and at the end. We ask you a great victory accompanied with long life and good health for our combatant and faithful leader Saddam Hussein. Oh God, give us patience and comfort on this painful loss. We are already compensated for his loss by the daily-materialized unmatched heroism and priceless sacrifices of the Iraqis against the current-age idol: The USA and International Zionism.”
ATTAGAMMOA’ (Yemeni Congregation of Unionists, weekly 29th May)

Al-Ahmar Saudi Arabia Inflamed the 1994 Turmoil
ATTAGAMMOA’ reported that, “Sana’a political circles speak about half-heartedness in relations between the ruling family in Saudi Arabia and sheikh Abdulla Al-Ahmar, Speaker of Parliament. Sheikh Al-Ahmer had hinted in an interview with September newspaper published in its special issue on 22nd May, that Saudi Arabia was involved in igniting the turmoil in Yemen back in 1994 when it received the ex-vice president Al-Bydh in the aftermath of signing the agreement on convention and accord. He said that he and his comrades were sure that the arrival of Ali Al-Bydh to the Kingdom instead of Sana’a was an indication of a coming war and secession.

 AL-AYYAM (Independent, daily 29th May)

10000 Students Demonstrate against the Killer  In a front-page story reported that, “More than 10 thousand Sana’a University students demonstrated yesterday in the streets of Sana’a carrying and chanting slogans about the crime and how it is threatening the future of the education of females in Yemen”.
“The demonstrators headed from the New University towards the office of the presidency and delivered a letter to President Saleh demanding a thorough disclosure of all details of this case, a fully open trial of the accused and of all those involved that should be transmitted online by TV, that the accused should be openly executed and crucified at the Faculty of Medicine. It was demanded also that all those involved should be tried and given the harshest verdicts possible, in order to make them a lesson for the others”.
AL-WAHDAWI (The Unionist People’s Nasserite Organization, weekly 30th May)

AL-WAHDAWI quoting a reliable source said that, ” His Majesty King Abdulla of Jordan didn’t attend the Yemeni celebrations of the 10th anniversary of unity because the Yemeni leadership refused to receive five members of the [Israeli] Kneset who were supposed to accompany King Abdulla. It was said that prearranged agreements were made without the knowledge of President Saleh”.
“The highly reliable source added that high dignitaries and officials protested against the presence of the Israeli MPs because it might foil the festivals that took months and great efforts and finances to arrange”.
AL-SAHWA (Yemeni Congregation of Reform, weekly 1st June)

Expansion of Investigation in Faculty Crimes Popularly Demanded.
AL-SAHWA ran a detailed report on the developments of the trial of the accused Sudanese.
A columnist of AL-SAHWA, Mr. Nasser Yahya, wrote in ‘Thursday’s Talk’ that, “the fifth column might have been angered by the wide popular movement and activity of which the university students were the vanguard.”
“This fifth column was also angry about the position taken by our people against the visit of the Zionist tourist group to Sana’a last April. So it went spreading its poison among those objecting to these visits and even took the role of an inquisition about the beliefs of those protesting and spreading rumors about them”.
“Is it possible when our society witnesses such a mass intifadha against corruption and crime that this fifth column, after it spreads its poison and hatred, claim to be supporting Islam and Arab nationalism”.
“Corruption of morals, infidelity and the mockery are all crimes that should be confronted. In such acts there is no difference between an anatomy technician or an institution under suspicion. Or whether the aim is a mad pleasure or a handful of Guilders!”Ali Al-Wasa’ai, another AL-SAHWA columnist said: “We were astonished by the race for establishing relations with Israel, while Muslims were supposed to think about the position of Islam towards such relations. ..What kind of Muslims are those who agree to the wishes of the United States whose main purpose is limited to render services for the Jews? When the United States says peace, it means peace of the Jews, and when it says terrorism it means those who resist the arrogance of the Jews and their disregard of the rights of the others”.
“A Muslim should go through the following in order to make a choice:
1- He should carefully consider God’s saying: ‘Who is more knowledgeable, you or God?’ He should then answer this question in the same way the Angels did, i.e. by saying: ‘praise the Lord. Oh God, we only know what you tell us’. This is a very basic point: we must believe that God knows better than us and than all other creatures He created.
2- When we seek to know who is our enemy or friend, our thought goes directly to God’s verse in the Koran saying: ‘God is more knowledgeable about who are your enemies’. Here we can relax as we don’t need to overexert ourselves in seeking to know who are our enemies, because God is in His glory and knows betters who are our enemies.
3- Building on the above we find a verse in the Holy Koran that says: ‘You shall find that those who have the strongest hostility against the believers are the Jews’.
When we race towards establishing relations with those who are our staunchest enemy as we are clearly told by God, what remains then of our Islam or our respect to what is stated by God?”.
Have you seen what a mistake is committed by a Muslim when he throws the statements of God behind, and proceeds to make arrangements for his life by being far from the instructions of his religion.”
AL-UMMAH (Al-Haq party, weekly 1st June)
Disagreement over Aden-Abyan Army Command
AL-UMMAH reports that “Disagreements exist on who is going to lead the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army in place of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Mihdhar who was executed in the aftermath of the kidnapping of 16 foreign tourists in 1998”.
“Reports say that these disagreements have reached a level in which accusations were exchanged with regard to the role played by some individuals with regard to the kidnapping incident. Some are being accused of helping the authorities and renouncing the true principles and aims of what is called the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army”.
“Abu Al-Mohsen, Issam Al-Mikhlafi, Jihad Al-Nashiri and Abu Obaidah are competing for the leadership. It is however believed that Abu Obaidah is the most favorably placed to take over especially as he was very close to the late Al-Mihdhar”.
“On the other hand, other sources report that the so called Islamic groups have established new training camps at the White Mountains chain in Shabwa governorate and some areas and mountains of Abyan governorate”.
26TH September (Armed Forces Journal, weekly 1st June)

26TH SEPTEMBER reports that “The brotherly State of Kuwait has nominated a new ambassador to the Republic of Yemen to enforce bilateral relations, which are building up”.
“The nominated ambassador is His Excellency Yousef Abdulla Al-Unaizi. His last post was the ambassador to Algeria, and as a non-resident ambassador to Portugal and Niger. Yemen has already agreed to his nomination”.
“It is recalled that Yemen nominated Mr. Saeed Hadi Awadh as a new ambassador to Kuwait last year, and Mr. Abdul Qader Ba Jammal traveled to Kuwait to reopen the Embassy of Yemen there. Sheikh Abdulla Al-Ahmar, Speaker of Parliament paid an official visit to Kuwait two months ago. During his visit, he delivered a letter from President Saleh to Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait”.

——
[archive-e:23-v:2000-y:2000-d:2000-06-05-p:./2000/iss23/press.htm]