A picture of "Aidarous" in Shabwa reveals 30 years of the Brotherhood’s trade in charitable work
English - Sunday 18 April 2021 الساعة 02:10 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Exclusive:
Last Wednesday, security forces in Shabwa raided a charitable project to distribute breakfast meals for fasting people in the city of Ataq, which was implemented by the leadership of the Southern Transitional Council in the governorate.
An incident that can be described as normal in the context of the hostility of the authorities of the governorate under the control of the Brotherhood to the Southern Transitional Council, but what is not usual is the justification given by these authorities for the incident and reported by the group's media.
As the security authorities considered distributing breakfast meals bearing the transitional slogans and pictures of its president, Aidaroos Al-Zubaidi, "a violation of humanitarian laws and that the purpose of that is to achieve political gains."
These words arouse ridicule and astonishment - at the same time - for their issuance by the local governorate authorities headed by Governor Muhammad bin Adiu, one of the leaders of the Islah Party (the local arm of the Brotherhood in Yemen), which has a long history of exploiting charitable work for its political benefit.
Indeed, the Islah Party is considered the founder of the experience of exploiting charitable work in politics in Yemen, as it is the only party that worked to establish a charitable society bearing his name and electoral slogan and is still operating today.
During thirty years, the "Islah Charitable Society" was seen as a stark example of the party's use of charitable work in politics. Rather, its remarkable activity before any elections in Yemen turned into mockery and mockery against the party.
Rare cynicism reached the point where reform was described by its opponents as the "qatm party", referring to the economic package of 10 kg of foodstuffs, which is popularly called "qatma", as the reform was accused of influencing the electorate under the guise of charitable work by distributing foodstuffs to The poorest groups before any elections, through his association that bears his name and electoral slogan.
With the weakening of the association's role after the Houthi group’s coup against the state in 2014, the matter turned into an approach followed by the prominent party leaders, and soon many of them announced charitable societies bearing their name to bring their photos with every activity, even if it was insignificant and ridiculous.
Perhaps the most famous incident occurred in the city of Taiz in September of last year when the Foundation "Sheikh Hamoud Saeed Al-Mikhlafi", a prominent reformist leader, provided a used laptop "laptop" and a "printer" for a secondary school in Taiz.
The incident sparked widespread ridicule on social media because of the photo that was taken of the incident, where activists ridiculed the value of the huge painting of the name of the institution and the image of Al-Mikhlafi is more expensive than the value of what was presented.
And the Al-Mikhlafi Foundation had previously aroused ridicule as it tried to invest in the Corona epidemic, and to promote in the media in an exaggerated manner about its implementation of a campaign to confront the epidemic, so that it became clear that it was just putting individuals from the institution in one of the entrances to the city with regular temperature measuring devices.
Likewise, the institution affiliated with the prominent reformist leader Tawakkol Karman and bearing her name has aroused mockery more than once, due to the activities it carries out in the liberated governorates.
Where it accuses the Foundation of focusing on the propaganda side in its activities despite its modesty, as it does not go beyond distributing relief baskets to those affected by the war, and insists on displaying the image entrusted through the propaganda banners intensively despite the limited impact of what it does.
Among the charitable institutions bearing the names of Brotherhood leaders, the Al-Eisi Foundation affiliated with the prominent Muslim Brotherhood businessman Ahmed Al-Eisi, which is significantly active in the liberated governorates, especially in the field of sports.
It is noteworthy that what links these Brotherhood personalities is that they are accused of profiting and profiting from the ongoing war in Yemen in various ways, which drives accusations of their attempts to bleach their pages by exploiting charitable work.
In addition to these institutions, there is talk among those interested in the charitable field about the Brotherhood’s near-absolute control over most organizations working in this field in Yemen within a global approach followed by the international organization of the group, where the charitable side is one of the most important tools of political influence on the one hand, and on the other hand it is considered One of the organization’s funds for secretly managing and transferring funds under the guise of charitable work.
