In a blow to British foreign
secretary William Hague’s prestige, Jabhut al-Nasra the al-Qaeda affiliated
group leading the front line against the Syrian Arab Army has now refused to
send a representative to Margaret Thatcher’s funeral.
The decision to invite Jubhat
al-Nasra was initially warmly received by the group’s leader Emir Abdulla al-Ifreet
who added that he was looking forward to his “adventurous” trip to London. More
so, he had received assurances from the Emir of Qatar to show him round his
shop, Harrods and also his pointless £1.5bn tower, the Shard. “I know the Emir
likes London so much” said al-Ifreet before adding, “to the extent that he is prepared to
bail out this bankrupt and venal city with subsidies investments in the
London Stock Exchange, Barclays, Sainsburys, race horses etc..etc...but as soon
as my right hand man, General Noon al-Meem informed me of the British horse
meat scandal I was compelled to review my initial decision. How would I know
the meat I’m being served is halal, even if it does say halal on the box!”
Upon hearing about the latest
withdrawal Hague is said to be “diplomatically disappointed”. Some close aides
are quoting him ad verbatim, “Those bloody wogs! After all I’ve been through
trying to get them a no-fly zone at the UN and with the Americans, they stab me
in the back like this.”
Abdulla al-Ifreet concluded that
he will not compromise his principles.
A good article on Yemen from long time radical Tariq Ali.
Although, I think it lacks a historical account of the relationship between the northern Yemeni political elite and Islamism (and what is now referred to as al-Qaeda), he more than compensates by providing a good outline of the events which led to the civil war in southern Yemen in 1986.
“I asked locals about AQAP. One of them came close to me and whispered: ‘Do you want to know where al-Qaida are based?’ I nodded. ‘In an office next to the president.’ In both Sana’a and Aden I encountered similar views...”
“..Ali Saleh obligingly describes the revolt as a Shia rebellion backed by Tehran, which had to be put down with force. But few believe this. The Yemeni army had embarked last August on Operation Scorched Earth, which destroyed villages and drove 150,000 villagers from their homes.”
New York Times provides a good sketch of Yemen’s ruling political gangsters:
“Mr. Saleh and his son also face another internal challenge from the next generation of the powerful Ahmar family, Yemeni bluebloods. Sheik Abdullah al-Ahmar was the chief of the powerful Hashed tribe, founded the Islah party and was Parliament speaker until his death in December 2007.” Complete article is here.
This so-called Sheik actually visited Birmingham, England in the 1990’s. And not only that - the Islah party ran it’s own Islamist schools in North Yemen from at least the early 1980’s to the mid 1990’s. The schools had a totally different curriculum to the state schools. These ‘brainwashing’ schools were laughably called ‘Scientific Institutes’. The first ‘guadian’ of these schools (and co-leader of the Islah party) was Abd al-Majid al-Zindani who is now wanted by the Americans because they consider him to be a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” and a former mentor to Osama bin Laden.
It’s so not nice when old friends fall out with each other!
But the really funny thing is that one of these ‘Scientific Institutes’ opened up in...Birmingham, England. One of the former head teachers of this ‘brainwashing’ school decided not to go to Yemen when the Islah party ‘institutes’ were disbanded in the mid 90’s but remained in England. Adnan Saif, a former head teacher of the ‘Scientific Institute’ in Birmingham, is now employed, according to this Guardian article, by Birmingham City Council as Chief Executive of Urban Living.
Adnan Saif has nothing but the ultimate praise for Sheik Abdullah al-Ahmar. Indeed, on his personal website (when it is online) he compares the late gangster to Mandela and Gandi! The reason he thinks he can get away with this comparison is that, in my opinion, he thinks Yemenis are too stupid and brainwashed to know any better to challenge this assertion and the English are too ignorant of Yemen to know what he is talking about.
Hmm...I wonder if there is ever a personal and spiritual conflict of interest of having run a North Yemeni 'brainwashing' Islamist school with connections to an individual associated with bin Laden and being Chief Executive of Urban Living in England's second city?
I don't know anything about this journal. But this is a good piece on the relationship between so-called al-Qaeda in Yemen and the Yemeni government:
"The opposing view is most often found among Yemeni analysts and holds that the Yemeni regime fosters and deploys Islamic extremists as mercenaries..."
