Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood Leader Called For Protests; Designated As Terrorist In 2004.

Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood Leader Called For Protests; Designated As Terrorist In 2004.(GMR).U.S. media is reporting that Yemeni clerics, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani, called for the protests now underway in Yemen in connection with the controversial film at the center of recent events. According to a Christian Science Monitor report: As violent protests against an obscure anti-Islamic film spread to Yemen, parts of the capital of Sanaa erupted, underscoring the continuing instability facing the country and laying bare simmering anti-American sentiments. A number of Yemeni clerics, including Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani, a leading Sunni religious leader, called for the protests. Participants said they were initially planned as peaceful demonstrations, but as they escalated, some people attempted to lay siege to the US embassy, with some of them clearing the compound’s outer security perimeter, despite the presence of Yemeni security forces. Some demonstrators burned cars and smashed the windows of security buildings as they set an American flag on fire. Yemeni forces were eventually able to repel the attack, which failed to reach the main buildings of the embassy compound, but it took time to disperse the hundreds of demonstrators in the largely youthful crowd shouting defiant chants, vowing to sacrifice themselves to protect the honor of the prophet Muhammad and, in some cases, lobbing rocks at the Yemeni forces trying to hold them back. A tense standoff ensued between protesters and harried troops who launched tear gas and fired warning shots in the air in a scrambled attempt to disperse the crowd, which diminished by early afternoon. At least 13 demonstrators were wounded and one was reported killed by a stray warning shot. An embassy spokesman confirmed that all members of their staff were ‘present and accounted for.’

 ” The U.S. Treasury Department designated Zindani as a terrorist in 2004, describing him as a “loyalist” and “spiritual advisor” to Osama Bin Laden.
A 2007 Jamestown Foundation report further explained Zindani’s terrorist activities: According to a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department, al-Zindani’s involvement with al-Qaeda includes recruiting, purchasing weapons and acting as a spiritual leader for the movement, as well as acting as a contact for Kurdish Iraq’s Ansar al-Islam (http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/js1190.htm).
The Yemen government has ignored appeals from Washington for the arrest of the sheikh and the seizure of his assets (Arab News, February 24, 2006). Al-Zindani was recently identified in a U.S. federal court as the coordinator of the October 2000 suicide attack in Aden harbor on the USS Cole. A two and a half year-old lawsuit filed in Virginia by the families of the 17 servicemen killed in the bombing has recently finished by finding the country of Sudan responsible for the attack, opening the way for compensation payments from the US$68 million in Sudanese assets frozen by the U.S. government. The suit also alleged that al-Zindani selected the two suicide bombers that carried out the strike, although the sheikh was never charged by Yemeni authorities with complicity in the attack (The Virginian-Pilot, March 12). Yemen’s minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, welcomed the decision, ignoring the alleged role of al-Zindani, while declaring the verdict proof that Yemen was in no way involved in the attack on the U.S. destroyer. Also, the Jerusalem Post reported in April 2006 that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal had met with Zindani at a fundraising event at the Hamas office in Yemen. The report stated that at the event, Zindani “praised Hamas suicide bombers and and called on his followers to donate money to assist the Palestinian people.” In addition to his leadership of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood, Zindani also has strong links to the global Muslim Brotherhood including serving on the board of global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi’s Union of Good Hamas fund-raising organization and his relationship to Muslim Brotherhood figure Zaghloul el-Naggar of Egypt. The connection with el-Naggar is based on both men’s position as leading exponents of the so-called “scientific basis of Islam.” Zindani is also a leader of the Al-Islah Party in Yemen, identified by an Israeli research center as the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen.Read the full story here.