Text | Nan Nan
Editor|Nannan
The Houthi movement, al-Ḥūthiyyūn in Arabic, officially known as Ḥarakat Anṣār Allāh, is a radical movement in northern Yemen, originally led by Hussein Bader al-Din al-Houthi, a Yemeni politician and political activist from the Islamic Zaidi sect, rooted in Zaidi revivalism.
The movement (ḥarakat in Arabic) calls itself Anṣār Allāh ("Defender of God"); The popular term "Houthi movement" refers to its charismatic founder.
It has been waging an armed insurgency against Yemen's internationally recognized government on and off intermittently since 2004.
Background and origin
After the establishment of the Zayid regime in Yemen in 893 AD, northern Yemen became home to the thriving Zaided community. The Zaide faction, usually led by a political-spiritual leader known as an imam, remained the dominant political force in the region thereafter, although occasionally challenging Zaide's rule.
The most recent such challenge occurred in 1962, when the imam was overthrown and forced into exile. A military regime, the Yemeni Arab Republic, was established to replace the Imam, which met with strong resistance from the Zaidi royalists for the rest of the decade.
Despite an agreement to end hostilities, the regime remains wary of empowering the Zeid elite, a trend that in turn marginalizes the Zeid community more broadly.
At the same time, pan-Arab governments sought to accelerate the convergence of Zeid and modern Sunni hermeneutical trends.
But while the fusion of Zaid's and Sunni teachings has hitherto been an endogenous movement, the 1970s saw an infusion of specific Wahhabi (i.e., Saudi) ideas that undermined core elements of Zeid teachings and challenged the authority of the Zeid elite.
Near Ṣaʿdah (the center of Zayd society), a Wahhabi seminary was established in the early 1980s and resonated.
What many saw as an existential threat to the Zeid community provoked Zayed's awakening, which took place in the same decade, which included a blatant shared embrace of Shia symbols to distinguish them from Wahhabi interpretations of Sunni Islam.
The democratic transformation of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen after the unification of their southern parts in 1990 provided a political opportunity for Zaedi's awakening. The Zeid elite and religious scholars formed the Al-Ḥaqq party, whose main objective was to represent the interests of the Zeid community while resisting the infusion of Wahhabi ideas and practices into the country.
This small party is firmly opposed to the stronger Iṣlāḥ (reform) party, an Wahhabi-influenced Islamist party. In 1997, during a political dispute between Iṣlāḥ and Pres, Al-Ḥaqq was offered the post of Minister of Religious Endowments (awqāf; singular waqf). Ali Abdullah Saleh.
After leaving parliament in 1997, the charismatic Al-Ḥaqq activist Hussein Bader al-Din Al Housse began nurturing youth of faith, a Zayed youth network intended to replace a similar Wahhābī youth network.
The network, which provides religious education, social benefits, and camaraderie, was initially supported by the Yemeni government, but its growing popularity and criticism of Saleh's presidency led the government to cut off funding in 2000.
Houthi rebellion
Growing tensions between Faith Youth and Saleh's regime transformed the network into a broader movement.
Saleh's support for the U.S. "war on terror" and its 2003 invasion of Iraq has provoked the anger of the movement's sympathizers, who see him as supporting imperialist efforts that also disenfranchise the Zaidis and threaten their traditions and way of life.
As the movement grew, the Saleh regime began cracking down on its participants in June 2004 and issued arrest warrants for Hussein Houthi. In September, after months of armed resistance, he was killed by Yemeni forces; The leadership of the movement passed briefly to his father and later to his brother Abdul Malik.
Partly as a result of the regime's tough response, the insurgency continues to flare-up, defying third-party efforts to reach a ceasefire. The movement is becoming increasingly armed, with weapons coming mainly from black market or military sources.
The insurgency in the north, along with the protests that later arose in the south, evolved into broader issues, including the legitimacy of Saleh's regime, Yemeni unity, and even republicanism itself. After Arab Spring protests in Tunisia and Egypt overthrew their respective presidents in early 2011, Yemenis called for an end to Saleh's regime.
In November, Saleh signed an international mediation agreement that transferred power to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Hadi took over as president in February 2012, but his presidency proved equally divided, especially with PAS playing a bigger role in Hadi's government than in Saleh's. For his part, Saleh remains an important power broker in Yemeni politics.
Yemeni Civil War
In July 2014, Hadi's government slashed fuel subsidies to combat a widening budget deficit and attract foreign funding. Protests broke out, some of them by Houthi rebels. In September, Yemeni security forces opened fire on protesters in the capital, Sana'a, killing several people.
The incident sparked an escalation of confrontation, culminating in the Houthis occupying parts of the city later that month. In late January 2015, with the covert support of Saleh and his military supporters, the Houthis seized the presidential palace and Hadi was forced to resign.
The following month, Hadi appeared in the commercial city of Aden and withdrew his resignation. However, his position there was precarious, and he quickly enlisted the support of international military intervention to repel the Houthi rebels.
As the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthi rebels began in March, Hadi and his government fled to Saudi Arabia, where they ruled in exile.
At the same time, Saleh has increasingly openly supported the Houthi offensive. The Saudis intended to drag on the conflict for only a few months with no solution in sight, and the United Nations began efforts to mediate between the warring parties in December. Negotiations failed to reach an agreement.
In late 2017, Saleh announced his readiness to engage in dialogue on the demands of the Saudi-led coalition. Betrayed Houthi rebels drove Saleh's forces out of Sana'a and killed him on December 4.
Now unilaterally in control of the capital, the Houthi insurgency intensified in January, after brief clashes between Hadi supporters.
Meanwhile, the port city of Al-Ḥudaydah became an important asset for the Houthi rebels. As one of Yemen's main ports, it is a major source of import and revenue for the Houthi insurgency.
In June 2018, the Saudi-led coalition pushed into the city, hoping that the threat of losing it would stifle Houthi leaders from negotiating a peace deal favorable to the alliance. But because the port is also a lifeline for humanitarian aid, the United Nations intervened and brokered a ceasefire that came into effect in December.
For their part, the Houthi rebels pose an increasingly formidable challenge to the Saudi-led coalition. Not only have they made progress against coalition forces in Yemen, but attempts by Houthi militants to attack Saudi territory with drones and missiles have also become frequent.
While it is unclear when Iran became the main source of military support for the Houthi rebels, there is no doubt that Iran's secret Quds Force is responsible for their increasingly sophisticated attacks.
The Houthis's cooperation with Iran was further highlighted when Houthi leaders claimed responsibility for the September 2019 attack on the Bugheq oil processing facility, Saudi Arabia. The attack, which disrupted Saudi oil production for weeks, appeared to come from northern Saudi Arabia, suggesting at least partial Iranian involvement.
Still, Houthi attacks on Saudi territory remain frequent as the Saudi-led coalition struggles to gain a foothold in Yemen.
Zaydiyeh: Islam
Zaydiyyah, also spelled Zaidiyyah, also known as Zaidīs or English Zaydis, alias Fivers, is the grandson of the Shia Muslim sect loyal to Zeid ibn Ali and Husayin ibn Ali.
Zayid was the son of the fourth Shia imam Ali ibn al-Husayin, and when the imam was defined at the time of Shiʿi's designation and role, Zayed's followers argued that the imam was supposed to be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (see Ahl al-Bayt), who was the most knowledgeable in religious learning.
However, Muhammad's followers tended to emphasize that religious knowledge was passed down by blood to God-appointed imams, and these followers accepted Muhammad as the fifth imam.
Although Muhammad was of higher descent than Zeid, Zayd had a higher level of religious learning and was accepted as an imam by a minority of Shiites. Although the Zaides have had numerous imams throughout their history, some outsiders call them "Fivers" because Zeid was the sect's fifth imam.
Dharmonically, Zeid is closer to most Sunnis than other Shiʿis. Unique among the other major branches of Shiʿi Islam, Zaid believed that imams acquired religious knowledge (and therefore leadership) through study rather than through divine designations.
Thus, jurisprudence through ijtihād (reasoning) and qiyās (analogy) takes precedence over obedience and mysticism.
Shiʿi: Anti-Umayyad movement: Zaydi Shiʿah and ʿAbbāsids
Given the nature of the imam's merits, the Zaid imam does not necessarily serve as an imam for life. Zeid is an elite of the Prophet Muhammad's descent and has traditionally risen to leadership by proving itself to be more just and just than the current leadership. A concept called khurūj.
Historically, this usually took the form of uprisings or rebellions. Since the mid-20th century, Zaided religious scholars have interpreted khurūj as being able to achieve this by participating in electoral politics.
Zayid in Yemen in the early 10th century, after which the Zaydi Imam was the spiritual ruler of the region. From the departure of the Turks in 1917 until 1962, they were also the secular rulers of Yemen.
The Zaid imam has since ceased to exist and there have been no public efforts to assert a new imam.
The subsequent repression and marginalization of Yemen's Zeid was what led to the Houthi rebellion of the early 21st century and the civil war of the 2010s.
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