UAE’s plan gets prepared to uproot mosque preachers in Aden

ADEN. Aug. 15 (YPA)- The UAE is planning a large-scale operation to uproot preachers and imams from mosques in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, which is under coalition control.

Local sources said that Abdulrahman Al-Mahrami, deputy of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), handed the head of religious affairs in the UAE forces a list of the names of new preachers and imams who would be appointed to Aden’s mosques midweek.

The sources added that the plan to replace preachers was put forward by hardline Salafist leaders, led by the director of Aden endowments, Mohammed Hussein al-Wali, and the so-called Munir al-Saadi, to replace preachers affiliated with the so-called “Preaching, Reform, and Sufism,” including a number of moderate Salafists.

Most of the candidates come from the Yafa’i area, and the plan seeks to undermine religious discourse and incite sectarian strife in the city, potentially leading to divisions within mosques, the sources stated.

This follows a campaign of assassinations targeting more than 35 imams and preachers, most of them affiliated with the Islah party, in Aden over the past few years.

Salafi leader Hani bin Breik, who was prevented by Emirati authorities in Abu Dhabi from returning to Aden, was accused of being behind these assassinations.

AA