Page 50 - What Kind of Yemen ?

What Kind of Yemen?

Yemen's national integrity and democratic life are as follows:

• To take care over protecting Yemen's status as a state respecting
the rule of law;
• To oppose any kind of totalitarian regime, whether of the right
or left;
• To oppose policies based on ethnic or sectarian separation;
• To support human rights and the free expression in society of
all opinions and beliefs, regardless of what ideology or world view
they may represent;
• To reject the use of violence in order to impose one's own views.

The last and most important element is for all the political parties
in Yemen to declare their unequivocal devotion to democracy. The
greatest responsibility for preserving democracy in the country lies
with Yemeni Muslims because freedom of thought, belief and expres-
sion – which we attribute to democracy – lie at the heart of Islam.
Some people imagine that democracy first appeared in ancient
Greece. Yet it is God Who teaches people democracy. All of the

prophets, from Adam (pbuh) on, have been representatives of free-
dom, free thinking and respect for ideas. Concepts such as liberty, jus-
tice, oppression of none, treating everyone as a first-class citizen, trust
in, and respect for, all people and not judging anyone because of their
ideas – which are all principles that come to mind when democracy is
mentioned – exist at the heart of the moral values of the religion. Peo-
ple have learned them through the Divine faiths revealed by God and
have witnessed their finest examples at times when people lived by
Divine religions.

Like all the other prophets, many events representing a democrat-
ic way of thinking occurred during the prophethood of the Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh). People of various faiths, tongues, races and cul-
tures lived side by side in the lands where the Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) lived. It was very hard for these communities to live together in
peace and trust as it was difficult to contain those groups that tried to
incite hatred amongst them for each other; one group might immedi-

ately be angered and attack another over the slightest word or action.

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