Who controls the Yemeni mind? [Archives:2008/1172/Opinion]

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July 14 2008

Adel Al-Shujaa

The observer of these days' symposiums and workshops, particularly the ones concentrating on the present and future of Yemen, finds that the number of participants at each of these events doesn't exceed the range of dozens.

On the contrary, anybody walking in the Ring Road of Sana'a, near Sana'a University, will be shocked to find that hundreds of youths are crowdedly massing before a shop playing a cassette for a preacher giving an excessive description of inferno and its miserable conditions. Their number is many times larger than the number of participants attending cultural and intellectual symposiums.

Does this mean that carpets have been taken from under the feet of educated people and intellectuals? People have drawn their attention from those who call for applying logic and reasonability in their everyday activities.

We don't know until which time this country will remain under the umbrella of ignorance and lack of active mentalities amid the unprecedented outbreak of information and spread of globalization. No notable role is being played by educated people and university professors, who should represent the strong mental faculties in their nation.

Also, media doesn't play a good role even in publishing scandals of those irresponsible mosque preachers, who exploit people's religious sentiments to mislead them.

When an educated man doesn't play the role required from him in this regard, this means he gives a greater opportunity to those irresponsible preachers, who deceive people under the guise of religious preaching and guidance, particularly as they face no difficulty doing so. I personally claim that educated individuals are responsible for misguidance of innocent citizens as a result of being emotionally affected by exaggerative preachers.

Apparently, mosque preachers claim that Muslims' indifference toward their religion is the primary reason for all the calamities and setbacks experienced across the Islamic nations. They further say that it is impossible for Muslims to defeat Israel until their numbers in mosques at dawn prayers equals their numbers during Friday prayers, adding that Muslims will not enjoy stability until they go in streets with the Holy Book in their hands.

Myths and fables pervades our environment

Myths and fables have become more pervasive in our environments until we started to hear unbelievable things about those (a group of preachers) who want to establish a body for virtue protection. They held a symposium at the Sana'a-based Eman University under “The Patronage of God for the Sake of Strengthening Faith.” God has become the sponsor of their symposiums. Consequently, any findings that would have been reached during the symposium should have been approved by God, who is their symposium's sponsor.

As the educated elite have no effective role in this regard, those irresponsible preachers seized the opportunity to control minds of Yemeni people, and their calls are often welcomed, most notably by youths who bear in mind that these preachers control their future directions. Some of these youth have shown willingness to harm themselves in suicide bombings and terrorist operations based on a false belief that they defend Islam.

These irresponsible preachers constitute a potential danger due to plague Yemen's future since they exploit poverty, bad living conditions and kindness of Yemeni people to control their minds, as well as the way they think.

Source: Algomhoriah.net
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