Published on 27 November 2014 in NewsBassam Al-Khameri (author)
SANA'A, Nov. 26- Four hundred foreign students studying in the Al-Fayoush Salafi Center located in the Tuban district of Lahj governorate are leaving and returning to their home countries on Thursday.
The Center was founded in 2007 by Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Adeni, a prominent Salafi scholar in Lahj district. It has been alleged that many of the students violated the rules of the center by attending sermons led by extremist Imams.
Abdullah Al-Majedi, governor of Lahj, was quoted on the Ministry of Defense's website on Tuesday as saying that the students would be leaving at their own expense. 'Those students had no connection to terrorism, but left at the request of the local authorities, for security purposes,' the Defense Ministry website quoted Al-Majedi as saying. He did not elaborate further on the meaning of 'security purposes.'
A prominent Salafi working within the Al-Fayosh Center spoke with the Yemen Times on Wednesday on condition of anonymity due to the unstable security situation in the region. 'Those students will be leaving on Thursday, in coordination with the embassies of their own countries and the local authorities of Lahj,' he said.
He added that most of the students are from France, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Indonesia, and that several are married to Yemeni women and have children. 'We raised the issue of many of the students having Yemeni wives to the local authorities, who told us that they should either take their wives with them or seek a divorce,' he added.
Suspicions regarding the students began two weeks prior when they began attending radical sermons at mosques in the city of Aden, he alleged. 'Two weeks ago, a radical sheikh from Saudi Arabia came and led Friday prayers in a mosque calling for Muslims to wage jihad against the Houthis,' he said. 'Sheikh Adeni advised them not to attend, however many did anyway,' he said. Houthis are followers of the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, and are viewed as heretics by many radical Sunni clerics.
Basim Al-Zuriqi, Media Spokesman for the governor of Lahj governorate, agreed with the source and told the Yemen Times on Wednesday that the students had been forced to leave by security forces for fear that they were being radicalized in nearby mosques in Aden.
'Those students came to Yemen to study the Quran and live in the center with their families,' he said. 'But recently, it was heard that they were violating the rules of the center and attending radical sermons led by extremist Imams.'
The decision to deport the students comes as security forces step up their attempts to combat the spread of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), particularly in the southern governorates, he said.
The Salafi source rejected allegations that students or the center had any connection to Sheikh Yahya Al-Hajuri, a controversial Salafi scholar from the northern city of Dammaj in Sa'ada governorate, who had been accused in 2011 by many of training foreign students in the use of weapons to be used to fight against Houthis who lived in the area. Al-Hajuri was expelled from Dammaj in January 2014 and took refuge in Sana'a after Houthis went to war with the Salafi community in the city towards the end of 2013.
Wahib Al-Nusairi, a resident of Tuban district who lived near the center, said the students were friendly and caused no problems with residents in the district. 'Some had been living in the area a long time, and are married to Yemeni women and have families,' he said. 'They spent most of their time inside however, and we never saw them that often.'
Foreign students often come to Yemen to study in Salafi centers in Sana'a, Lahj, Dammaj, and Hodeida.
The Al-Faiosh center was established in 2007 by Sheikh Al-Adeni in Lahj's Tuban district, and includes two separate institutions, one each for men and women. The institutions provide instruction in the Quran and religious texts.
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