Yemen's Government Pushed Shiite Minority to Rebel, Researcher Says (Yemen-Report: Rebels‪)‬

Yemen's government, which has been fighting on and off a rebellion by the country's Shiite minority in the north since 2004, actually pushed these people to resort to arms after it cracked down on their peaceful movement on instructions from the US embassy in Sanaa, according to an academic. The whole thing started on Jan. 17, 2002, when Hussein al-Houthi, a leader of the Believing Youth, which was an intellectual forum for the Shiite minority in the northern province of Saada, urged his followers to take a verbal stance "against oppressive world powers," Samy Dorlian wrote in the Beirut-based influential daily AN NAHAR on Sept. 4. "Houthi, a former member of parliament for the Zaydis, which is a minority branch of Shiism, wanted to launch a peaceful movement that would welcome to its ranks any Yemenis of any confession, regions and social class," Dorlian wrote in the newspaper, which described him as a specialist in Yemeni affairs. "However, the slogan he took for his movement against US hegemony on the Arab and Islamic worlds was extreme: 'Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse to the Jews and Victory to Islam,'" he added.