American being held in Yemen

There is a man from Philadelphia being held in Yemen. Read about it here. Everyone claims to have no idea as to why he is being held, but there are clues in the article. He had just come back from Sa'ada, the area up north (by the Saudi border) where there had up until recently been lots of fighting. That is supposedly over now, but the government is no fan of some of the Imams up there. Why was he up there? He had come to Yemen to lean Arabic, and the learn about Islam. I can tell you from experience that there's no problem going there to learn Arabic. And learning about Islam isn't necessarily a big deal either. But if you go to Imams that the government doesn't like, they will be all over you. Ever since John Lindh got his training in Yemen, the Yemeni government has been uptight about foreigners coming there to study Islam.

I knew a couple from South Africa that had a terrible time getting through immigration in Yemen. They were dressed in their usual garb. The muslim population in South Africa tends to be pretty conservative, and both of them were obviously muslims. The government had multiple people question them about where they were going, what they would be studying, etc. They were only there to study Arabic, and he thought the only reason they let them in was because he was going to a state run Arabic school. On the other hand, I knew an Australian muslim that came to Yemen to learn the language. She dressed like any other Aussie, no problems. I also knew an Italian who cam there to learn Arabic, but he went to a mosque in the old city to learn about Islam. No problems.

So here's my advice. If you want to learn about Islam in Yemen, don't tell anyone you're going to do that when you get to the country. And then, stay in the larger cities, there are plenty of Imams of all different viewpoints in the cities. If you go to hadramont, Sa'ada, Marib, etc. and it's known that you are hanging out with the more radical types, the government will harass you.

I'm pretty sure the government has recently rescinded the do not travel warning, and there are lots of reasons to go to Yemen (unlike the ignorance shown in the article), but you have to be smart about going there. Don't do stupid things and you'll be fine...

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religion, terrorism, travel, yemen, islam