Saleh: al-Houthi ideas are racist, sectarianist

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh criticized Hussein al-Houthi and his thoughts and described his behavior as " deviationist from the values of Islam."

He said that "al-Houthi is able to mislead many youths and poison their thinking. A matter which made them pursue an anti-Islamic behavior." Saleh stressed in a speech before 350 mosque Imams who completed a rehabilitation course that "al-Houthi acts are damaging to Islam and provoke sectarianism and racism." Saleh called on preachers to get rid off all phenomenon of extremism and challenge practices violating Islamic jurisprudence and values of tolerance.

The Yemen mosques Imams and preachers completed a two- week rehabilitation course in Sanaa attended by scholars from Yemen and others from al-Azhar in Egypt.

Lectures were delivered by Yemeni preachers and scholars, the Yemeni minister of the interior Rashad al-Oleimi, the minister of al-Awqaf Hammoud Abbad and Sheikhs from al-Azhar.