Yemeni Writers Union consolidates Al-Junaid and Al-Mustakila [Archives:2006/926/Local News]
SANA'A, Mar. 5 ) A Salafi group is leading an extensive campaign against writer Adnan Al-Junaid and Al-Mustakila newspaper due to his writings about the Prophet Mohammed's fellow, Abu Hurairah.
Al-Junaid criticized prophetic traditions narrated by Abu Hurairah. Critics also blame Al-Junaid for doubting many prophetic traditions in the volumes of Al-Bukhari and Muslim (considered by Muslims to be genuine sources). Al-Junaid is a mystic scholar classified under the Shiite sect.
In his last issue, Al-Junaid said the Islamic legacy should be revised in order to redecorate Muslims' image in the eyes of Westerners. According to the writer and journalists' petition to the Minister of Interior and the Attorney General, the campaign included Friday speeches of Al-Asadi mosque preacher Mahmoud Al-Barakani and Al-Tawheedion mosque preacher Khalid Al-Saighi, in addition to mosques of Nasar, Al-Shaibani towns or mosque names and Al-Kurifa in Al-Mudam area.
Al-Mustakila received a number of electronic and faxed threatening messages, the most prominent being a message from 'Abu Abdullah Al-Yamani.' Addressing the writer and the newspaper, it said, “We tell Adnan to stop his writings or consider himself on the screen and the blacklist. In God's name, if you do not stop your writings and apologize, your blood is considered spilled with impunity. The threat also concerns the newspaper.”
In a special release to the Yemen Times, Al-Mustakila owner, MP Ahmed Saif Hashid, said the fidelity campaign has spread to most governorates like Lahj, Al-Maharah and Taiz. “The campaign went to the extent that some infidel accusers went to my constituency to tell them that Al-Mustakila newspaper spreads infidelity and that it insults the prophet and his fellows,” he said.
Hashid called on authorities to take measures to stop the campaign to protect Al-Mustakila employees. He also called for protecting cultural and press freedom and not conniving with defamers, adding that he saw no official reaction after two weeks of the defaming campaign.
In a Sunday statement, the Writers Union condemned the campaign against cleric Al-Junaid and Al-Mustakila newspaper. It expressed concern over such a campaign, which it believes contradicts the law and encourages the emergence of negative values, enabling those with wrong beliefs to use mosques to defame those holding different beliefs.
The union called on the state to interfere to protect citizens and called for resorting to judiciary instead of fanaticism. The union also urged civil societies to face the phenomenon to preserve public stability.
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