{"id":14880,"date":"2010-11-30T18:48:18","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T00:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=14880"},"modified":"2010-11-30T18:57:08","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T00:57:08","slug":"nu%e2%80%99man-abd-al-wahid-the-rise-of-north-yemeni-islamism-in-birmingham-u-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=14880","title":{"rendered":"Nu\u2019man Abd al-Wahid: The Rise of North Yemeni Islamism in Birmingham, U.K."},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nu\u2019man Abd al-Wahid<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the reasons generally given for the rise of extreme Islamism is the Arab defeat at the hands of Israel in 1967 in the six day war. <\/p>\n

It is theorised that, from this defeat (or Naksa as the Arabs refer to it), loomed the beginning of the end of Arab Nationalism and other, largely secular ideologies, which had hitherto led the struggle to liberate the Middle East from western domination and zionist colonialism. This defeat created the vacuum political Islamism has supposedly filled since.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This theory tends to be strongly insinuated at and espoused by British writers such as Seamus Milne, Jason Burke and the late Chris Harman.1<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

The theory overlooks one very important British initiated strategy2<\/a><\/sup> played out in the Middle East and South East Asia during the Cold War. That is the employment by Britain (and then America) of extreme Islamists to counter left-wing, nationalist and communist parties or movements because these movements were considered by the West to be threats to their interests and to their allies in the region.3<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

One of the ways Western backed regimes in the Middle East and South Asia guaranteed a steady flow of extreme Islamists was through \u2018Islamising\u2019 the education system or promoting a parallel Islamist education system alongside the official state education system.<\/p>\n

The schools that were and are part of the Islamist education system are popularly referred to as \u2018madrassas\u2019. Graduates from these madrassas tended to have been highly receptive to the militant Islamist cause. Even more so if this cause happened to dovetail with Western interests, such as Afghanistan in the 1980s. <\/p>\n

It is in the 1980s that madrassas became popular. According to Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani academic, \u201cmadrassas provided the US-Saudi-Pakistani alliance the cannon fodder they need to fight the holy war\u201d in Afghanistan.4<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

The madrassas in Pakistan catered for both Pakistani political groups and the Afghan refugees from the Soviet invasion. Free lodgings and food obviously made them even more popular. <\/p>\n

Hoodbhoy claims that there could be up to 22,000 madrassas in Pakistan churning out 1.5 million students. While Ahmed Rashid in his popular book on the Taliban claims that there were 25,000 unregistered madrassas in Pakistan alone by the late 1980s.5<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Another country where madrassas played a role in defeating the left and other secular ideologies is North Yemen. Here, the madrassas, were called \u2018Scientific Institutes\u2019. Like the madrassas that served the Pakistanis and Afghans, these \u2018Scientific Institutes\u2019 ran parallel with North Yemen\u2019s official state education.<\/p>\n

They were initially established in the mid-1970s with Saudi Arabian finance. The person that was overall responsible or \u2018guide\u2019 for this Islamist educational operation was Abd al-Majid al-Zindani. In 1983, al-Zindani was appointed education minister in North Yemen.6<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Abd al-Majid al-Zindani also eventually served as a co-leader of the North Yemeni initiated Islamist, Islah Party alongside the tribal Sheikh Abdulla al-Ahmar.<\/p>\n

Also in 1983, a \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 was parachuted into Birmingham, England\u2019s second major city by the then North Yemeni cultural attach\u00e9, Abdulla al-Shamahi. <\/p>\n

The \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 was initially based at 517 Moseley Road, in the Balsall Heath region of Birmingham before finally moving to the Bordesley Centre, in the Sparkbrook region of Birmingham. I was informed that Mr. al-Shamahi put forward \u00a317k towards the purchase of 517 Moseley Road, a converted church.7<\/a><\/sup> The purchase of the Bordesley Centre was largely financed by the Yemeni entrepreneur, Hayel Saeed.<\/p>\n

There is a small Yemeni sub-community in Birmingham which originally arrived here in the late 1950s and 1960s for the same reasons that Caribbean, Indian and Pakistanis came to the UK: to fill the gap of the post world war labour shortage. Many Yemenis were from South Yemen (which was then a British protectorate) but there was a good proportion of North Yemenis. It may be, because of this that Mr. al-Shamahi based himself in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

al-Shamahi like Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-American alleged to be behind the Christmas day bomber, is a son of the Yemeni political establishment. al-Shamahi\u2019s father was said to be a \u2018political advisor\u2019 to the North Yemeni President in the late 70s, while al-Awlaki\u2019s father served as Agricultural Minister in North Yemen.8<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

The curriculum of the \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 was devised to make North Yemenis and whoever came into contact with it more than receptive to extreme Islamism. One British-American academic even goes as far as saying that the educational methods eventually utilised at the \u2018Scientific Institutes\u2019, were first used in Afghanistan \u201cto indoctrinate young men against the Soviets.\u201d9<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Although it was a dubbed an \u2018Arabic School\u2019 by young adults who were compelled to attend, the emphasis in the curriculum was religious instruction. Arabic was taught to facilitate the imbibing of Islamist indoctrination. The \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 taught Arabic within an Islamist \u2018indoctrination\u2019 framework. <\/p>\n

The \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 operated largely on a daily basis. Young Yemenis were bussed in from Birmingham\u2019s inner city and the surrounding Black Country, at the Scientific Institute\u2019s expense, to receive their daily dose of North Yemeni scientifically institutionalised \u201ceducation\u201d. Anecdotally, I would say about 65-70% of young second generation Yemenis in the West Midlands passed through, at some stage, this \u2018Arabic School\u2019 in the 1980s. <\/p>\n

In North Yemen, like Afghanistan, one of the major functions of the \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 was to help the North Yemeni government in its war against left wing rebels, known as the National Democratic Front, in the southern part of North Yemen in the 1980s. As one academic study put it, \u201cthey provided a useful bulwark against the rising leftist challenge from the…NDF.\u201d10<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

With the implementation of the curriculum in 1983 in Birmingham, teachers eventually arrived from North Yemen. For instance, Yahya Rassam, Ahmad Nu\u2019man, Ahmad al-Rowny, Abdullah al-Himyairy, Faisal al-Za\u2019za\u2019y and Dtarash Abdullah all arrived during this period. They were later to be joined by home grown teachers such as Adnan Saif.<\/p>\n

These teachers were not here to guide young second generation adults to meet the challenges of institutional racism, educational under-achievement or even maintaining one\u2019s cultural heritage. <\/p>\n

In sharp socio-political contrast to the vast majority of Yemenis in Birmingham, these teachers arrived here to implement the North Yemeni socio-political agenda, that is to \u2018indoctrinate\u2019 second generation Yemenis.<\/p>\n

The question is how were these teachers sourced? Who selected them to be teachers? Were these teachers paid? If so, how much and since Abdulla al-Shamahi was the cultural attach\u00e9 of the North Yemeni embassy, was it he that paid them?<\/p>\n

Since these \u2018Scientific Institutes\u2019 were initially supported by Saudi Arabia, did they provide the funds for the Birmingham operation as well? These are questions that Mr al-Shamahi, who still resides in Birmingham, does not answer.<\/p>\n

More so, knowing what we now know about the collusion between US\/UK and Islamism in foreign fields in this period, it is perfectly legitimate to ask whether al-Shamahi was given the green light to set up this educational operation by MI5 or MI6?11<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Indeed, Margaret Thatcher was enthusiastic for the people of the Middle East to, \u201cbuild on their own deep religious traditions\u201d so as not to \u201csuccumb to the fraudulent appeal of imported Marxism.\u201d12<\/a><\/sup> She even went on to claim that the mujahideen (holy warriors) fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s were in \u201cone of the most heroic resistance struggles known to history.\u201d13<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Osama bin Laden who was also in Afghanistan during this period would have agreed, but probably now thinks the \u2018War on Terror\u2019 was \u201cone of the most heroic resistance struggles known to history.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 1987, there were 1126 \u2018Scientific Institutes\u2019 in North Yemen churning out ready-made, \u2018indoctrinated\u2019 graduates. It is not known how many there were by the time the Yemeni government (North and South Yemen united in 1990) abolished them in the mid-1990s. As such the Bordesley Centre ceased to offer this curriculum. <\/p>\n

The teachers, on the other hand, remained in the UK rather than return to Yemen where they could enjoy the fruits of their so-called \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019. I understand, some went on to work for the various Islamic charities but others continue to be garrisoned at the Bordesley Centre in teaching and non-teaching capacities. The Bordesley Centre has not responded to my questions about them.<\/p>\n

Unlike other teachers, Adnan Saif, a teacher and former manager of the \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 as well as trustee of the Muath Trust which runs the Bordesley Centre, was not parachuted in the mid-1980s to specifically teach the Islamist curriculum. He had been in the UK since arriving as the son of the late Ahmad Ali Hasan al-Shamairy and is currently employed as Chief Executive of Urban Living for Birmingham City Council.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, writing in a personal capacity, Mr. Saif positively compares the late co-leader of the Islamist, Islah party, Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar with Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi. He claims that Abdulla al-Ahmar was to Yemen what, \u201cGhandi and Mandela were to their respective countries.\u201d14<\/a><\/sup> Absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. <\/p>\n

Mr.Saif draws this analogy because members of the al-Ahmar family were executed by the pre-revolution ruler of North Yemen, the \u2018Imam\u2019. He seems to give the impression that by virtue of them being killed by a despotic Imam they therefore must have been struggling for a good cause.<\/p>\n

Indeed, they were killed by the Imam but it was not \u201cfor opposing him and supporting the struggle for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdulla al-Ahmar\u2019s father and brother were executed by the Imam over a dispute in which the latter demanded the restitution of a tribute payment. Actually, the tribute was paid for assistance in quashing a perceived anti-Imam rebellion. When Abdulla al-Ahmar\u2019s father and brother declined to return the payment, the Imam had them both summarily executed.15<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Therefore, they were not killed \u201cfor supporting the struggle for freedom\u201d as Mr. Saif would have us believe, but in support of holding on to their tribute.<\/p>\n

Mr. Saif has hitherto not responded to my enquiries about the \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 at the Bordesley Centre, Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Concentrating on the supposed defeat of Arab Nationalism and other secular ideologies is all very well but it does not fully explain the phenomena of the rise of political Islamism in the Middle East, South Asia or Birmingham, UK. Other compelling factors such as the role of madrassas, charities, state sanctioned political-military cells and financial institutions need also to be taken into consideration.16<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Today, Sheikh Abdulla al-Ahmar\u2019s children are part of Yemeni economic and political elite. Indeed, one member of the al-Ahmar family is said to run \u201cno less than 300 companies.\u201d17<\/a><\/sup> While, Abd al-Majid al-Zindani, his former co-leader in the Islamist, Islah party and the overall guide for the \u2018Scientific Institutes\u2019, is an internationally wanted man. <\/p>\n

According to a writer in Jane\u2019s Defence Review, al-Zindani, \u201csent between 5,000-7,000 Arabs to Afghanistan and Pakistan via Saudi Arabia for military training and religious teaching under his guidance.\u201d18<\/a><\/sup> Another political journalist claims that he was, \u201can important link in the chain of people engaged in steering both Yemeni and Saudi youth towards the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan.\u201d19<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

The American government alleges that al-Zindani supported designated terrorists and terrorist organisations. He is reported to have had a \u201clong history of working with Osama bin Laden\u201d.20<\/a><\/sup> The United Nations has added him to an INTERPOL list of individuals who belong to or are associated with al-Qaeda and therefore subject to UN sanctions.21<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

On the other hand, it seems that Bordesley Centre\/Muath Trust has taken Margaret Thatcher\u2019s oratory to heart, that is a \u201ctide of self-confidence and self awareness in the Muslim world which preceded the Iranian revolution, and will outlive its resent excesses.\u201d22<\/a><\/sup> The Bordesley Centre\/Muath Trust certainly has outlived the excesses.<\/p>\n

It no longer teaches the North Yemeni \u2018Scientific Institute\u2019 curriculum and it is very unlikely that it will host the likes of both President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the late Sheikh al-Ahmar again. <\/p>\n

Indeed the Muath Trust seems to seek mainstream respectability. It is now applying to take advantage of the new Conservative led coalition government\u2019s \u201cfree schools\u201d.23<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

\u2014 Nu\u2019man Abd al-Wahid<\/strong> is a freelance Anglo-Yemeni freelance writer specialising in the relationship between Britain and the Middle East. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
    \n
  1. Seamas Milne, \u201cReligion is now a potential ally of radical social change\u201d, Guardian<\/em>, 27th March 2008 and also his \u201cTerror is the price of support for despots and dictators\u201d, Guardian<\/em>, 7th January 2010. Chris Harman, \u2018Prophet and the Proletariat\u2019, (London: Larkham Printing and Publishing), 2002, pg.7. Jason Burke, al-Qaeda, (London: Penguin Books), pg.151: Burke is very forthright in this explanation, he also seems to possess posthumous access to Anwar al-Sadat\u2019s thoughts: \u201cNasser died and Anwar al-Saadat, his replacement, recognised that his predecessor\u2019s ideas had gone to the grave with him.\u201d Michael Gove, the current Education Secretary skirts around this explanation in his \u2018Celsius 7\/7\u2019, (London: Phoenix), 2006, pg.22-24. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. See my \u201cUnpacking Imperial Britain\u2019s Islamists\u201d at, http:\/\/pulsemedia.org\/2010\/02\/10\/unpacking-imperial-britains-islamists\/<\/a> (accessed 12th November 2010). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Mark Curtis, \u2018Secret Affairs: Britain\u2019s Collusion with Radical Islam\u2019, (London: Serpent\u2019s Tail), 2010 and Robert Dreyfus, \u2018The Devil\u2019s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam\u2019, (New York: Metropolitan Books), 2005. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Pervez Hoodbhoy, \u2018The Saudi-isation of Pakistan\u2019, Newsline, January 2009. Accessed at http:\/\/www.newsline.com.pk\/NewsJan2009\/cover2jan2009.htm<\/a> (accessed 5th August 2010). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, (London:Pan Books), 2001, pg. 89 ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Paul Dresch, A history of Modern Yemen, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2000, pg. 142 and g.173. Victoria Clark, \u201cYemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes\u201d, (Hampshire:Yale University Press), 2010, pg. 104. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. A meeting with Mr Saeed Abdillahi Abdi, a prominent member of the Yemeni community in Birmingham and former Labour councillor, on 3rd August 2009. Mr Abdi passed away in July 2010. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  8. For al-Shamahi\u2019s father, Abdulla Abd al-Wahhab al-Mujjahid al-Shamahi, see, J. Peterson, Yemen, The Search for a Modern State, (London: Croom Helm), 1982, pg. 125.n46. For al-Awlaki see, BBC News, \u2018Profile: Anwar al-Awlaki\u2019, 3rd January 2010. Accessed at http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/world\/middle_east\/8438635.stm<\/a> (accessed 23rd August 2010) or Arafat Madayash, \u2018Anwar al-Awlaki: al-Qaeda\u2019s New Pied Piper\u2019, Asharq Alawsat (English edition), 17th January 2010. Accessed at, http:\/\/www.aawsat.com\/english\/news.asp?section=3&id=19547<\/a>, on 23rd August 2010. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Sheila Carapico, Civil Society in Yemen, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1998, pg124. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Sharif Ismail, \u2018Unification of Yemen \u2013 Dynamics of Political Integration, 1978-2000, MPhil Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, (.pdf<\/a>) ,undated, pg. 58. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  11. Curtis, op cit., and Dreyfus op cit. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  12. Quoted in Curtis op. cit., pg.136. Needless to say \u2018Marxism\u2019 here is a meant generically as that which is not compatible with British economic interests during the Cold War. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  13. Margaret Thatcher in Sandy Gall, Afghanistan: Agony of a Nation, (London: Bodley Head), 1988, Preface. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  14. Adnan Saif, \u2018Shaikh Abdullah al-Ahmar: Embodiment of a Nation\u2019, undated, accessed at Adnan Saif\u2019s personal website, www.adnansaif.net\/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=26<\/a> (accessed 18th September 2009). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  15. J. Peterson, Yemen, The Search for a Modern State, (London: Croom Helm), 1982, pg. 50 and R. Bidwell, The Two Yemens, (Harlow: Longman), 1983, pg. 124. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  16. For the cells created in Egypt by Sadat see Burke, op. cit, pg151, Curtis, op. cit, pg. 107-109 and Dreyfus, op. cit., Chapter 6, \u201cThe Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u201d and Chapter 7, \u201cThe Rise of Economic Islam\u201d ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  17. Dresch, op. cit., Pg201. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  18. James Bruce, \u201cArab Veterans of the Afghan War\u201d, Jane\u2019s Intelligence Review, Section: Middle East, Vol. 7, No. 4, pg. 175-179. There is discrepancy in the actual number of volunteers from Arab countries in the Afghan war of the 1980s. I have stated the figures from Jane\u2019s Defence Review because the journal is considered to be highly authoritative. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  19. Clark op cit., pg. 224. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  20. http:\/\/www.ustreas.gov\/press\/releases\/js1190.htm<\/a> ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  21. http:\/\/www.interpol.int\/public\/Data\/NoticesUN\/Notices\/Data\/2006\/53\/2006_21653.asp<\/a> ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  22. Quoted in Curtis op. cit., pg.136 ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  23. \u201cNew Muath Trust Secondary School at the Bordesley Centre\u201d, www.muathtrust.com<\/a>, accessed 20th October 2010. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Nu\u2019man Abd al-Wahid One of the reasons generally given for the rise of extreme Islamism is the Arab defeat at the hands of Israel in 1967 in the six day war. It is theorised that, from this defeat (or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-3S0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14880"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14915,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14880\/revisions\/14915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}