Up to a million Yemenis gathered in the capital, Sanaa, on Friday, to protest against a recent spate of vile Quran desecration stunts, including by Islamophobic US Republican Senate candidate Jake Lang.
Demonstrators carried copies of the Quran and held banners while chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.
Jake Lang, a Republican candidate for the US Senate, attempted to burn a copy of the Quran during an anti-Islam march in the Muslim-American hub of Dearborn, Michigan, back in November but failed to carry out the hateful act after local Muslims seized his copy.
Lang had what appears to be a canister of lighter fluid in his hand as he threw Islam’s holy book to the ground during the rally, prompting a counter-protester to reach down and grab it before it was set alight.
Out of spite, Lang then travelled to Texas, to engage in a similar anti-Islam protests where he filmed himself desecrating the Quran with a pigs head outside the EPIC mosque in Plano, Texas on 13 December.
Lang, a self-described Christian nationalist, is part of a rising number of extreme pro-Israel activists who obsessively push deeply hateful Islamophobic messages and warn of the “threat of Islam” and an Islamic invasion of the West.
Yemen’s protest
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The huge crowd in Sanaa stressed that “any insult to the Holy Quran constitutes an attack on the entire Ummah.”
A statement issued by the rally said repeated insults to the Holy Quran were “not individual acts,” but part of “a comprehensive war targeting the identity, faith, and sanctities of the Islamic nation.”
It said that the anti-Islam campaign is led by the United States, Israel, and Britain, amid international complicity and “shameful Arab silence.”
The statement said the mass turnout was meant to express an absolute rejection of Quran desecration, renew support for the “oppressed Palestinian people,” and declare a state of full readiness to confront threats targeting Yemen and the wider region.
It also called on Muslim nations to take practical steps against escalating offences, urging the boycott of American and Israeli products as “a moral and religious step that helps lift injustice and prevents support for regimes that violate sacred values.”
The demonstrators also reaffirmed support for Palestine, saying Yemen would remain engaged in the central causes of the Ummah.
Houthi involvement
Earlier, The leader of Yemen’s AnsarAllah Houthi political movement strongly condemned the recent insult to the Holy Quran by Lang, calling on Muslims worldwide to take a “firm stand in defence of their sanctities.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Sayid Abdul-Malik al-Houthi described the act as a crime against “the greatest religious sanctities on earth,” emphasising that it forms part of “an ongoing war” against Islam led by the United States and the Israel, and their allies in the East and West.
These forces, he said, are seeking to corrupt human societies and dominate them. The desecration of religious sanctities goes hand in hand with “broader efforts” to enslave nations, plunder their wealth, and occupy their lands, he added.
The Houthis are leaders of a de-facto government in Sanaa which seized power during an armed uprising in 2014.
The group has been proscribed as a terrorist group in the United States and has come under direct attack from the US during the recent two year genocide in Gaza. The Houthis where one of the few local groups which fought Israel in an effort to end Israel’s attacks on the besieged Strip.
Responding to the news of the protest, Lang posted a plea on X, claiming that the protest leaders had issued a fatwa for his assassination.
“I DESPERATELY NEED PROTECTION FROM DEPARTMENT HOMELAND SECURITY! I have now started to MOVE my family members out of their homes and into dark safe house locations. I am calling for my heroic President to issue a Declaration of WAR against the Yemenis MUSLIM WARLORDS the Houthis NOW!!!”
