Let’s Talk Supremacy in Yemen

LET'S TALK SUPREMACY
IN YEMEN

HOUTHI'S RACIAL TAXATION
AND SUPREMACIST RELIGIOPOLITICAL IDEOLOGY

Studying different racist and supremacist regimes that existed in places like the U.S., South Africa, and Nazi Germany, one will find that the Houthi's religiopolitical ideology intersects in essence with all of them as they all divide the society into superiors and inferiors on the basis of an innate human characteristic.

Supremacist Regimes

Documents
of Claimed Superiority

In 2012, the Houthis published their manifesto wherein they declared that God has chosen descendants of Prophet Muhammed, Hashemis, to rule the people not on merit but on blood lineage; not for some time, but until the end of time.

In early June 2020, the Houthi de facto government controlling Yemen’s North passed a 20% racial taxation bylaw that favors the descendants of the Prophet Muhammed known as Hashemis.

Religious Justifications for Racial Taxation

The Houthis and their Zaidi scholars backed the argument for racial taxation with religious interpretations that grant descendants of the Prophet a higher human status over the rest of the society. However, we should refuse any engagement with the debate over the religiosity and validity of the source of the claimed Hashemi superiority as such engagement gives the concept of supremacy in and of itself some form of legitimacy to begin with.

Religious Justifications for Racial Taxation

Claims of "Divine" Superiority

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Claims of Divine Favorability

Claims of "Divine" Superiority

Hussain Badr Al-Deen Al- Houthi is the founder of the Houthi movement (1959-2004). His lectures, transferred into booklets, are one of the main sources of inspiration and guidance to the Houthis and their supporters. In this speech, given in December 2002, Hussain addresses the meaning of praying for and blessing Prophet Muhammed and his descendants.

Listen to the Full Speech of Hussain Badr Al-Deen Al-Houthi

Language Matters

The Houthi is from a minority that does not believe in an equal status with the majority but rather in a superior status over the rest of the society.

Safa A. Karman

The only way to get around the Yemeni conflict is to call out the Houthi phenomenon by its truth; to give it a name and definition because language matters. On this note, the Houthi is a supremacist group, and their religiopolitical ideology is Yemen’s original sin – Hashemi Supremacy.

Safa A. Karman

Definition of
Hashemi Supremacy
in Yemen

Inspired by Elizabeth Martinez’ definition of white supremacy

Hashemi Supremacy in Yemen is “an historically based, religiously and culturally institutionalized system of exploitation, oppression, and inferior classification of non-Hashemis by descendants of the Hashemi tribe and the Ahl al Bayt clan (matrilineal descendants of the Prophet Muhammed), who claim genealogical superiority and divine entitlement for the purposes of gaining and maintaining political, economic, social, and doctrinal privileges, and defending a system of status and power”.