The Mufti of the religious-political Houthi movement in Yemen, Shams al-Deen Sharad al-Deen, issued a fatwa (religious edict) forbidding people from using the internet “because it leads to corruption,” Al Arabiya reported.
The Mufti called on internet investors to pull out of their businesses and stop providing services to people.
According to Al-Arabiya, Houthi forces also “responded to the fatwa and forcefully implemented it in Qabal village located in Hamdan district of Sanaa governorate.”
Speaking to the news site, a number of villagers said that armed Houthis shot “down several houses hosting a Wi-Fi router.”
Villagers who spoke to Al-Arabiya over the phone also explained that a Houthi supervisor in their area, Mohammed al-Samini, has personally been “destroying Wi-Fi devices in each house.”
The supervisor also “distributed a copy of the Mufti’s fatwa to the residents.”
According to villagers, armed Houthis fired at the home of a resident who refused to take down their Wi-Fi device.
When he tried to explain that there are women and children in the residence, armed men belonging to the party “hit him with the rifles until he bled.”
In light of the latest fatwa, residents of Qabal and Yemenis in several other towns are now worried that the group will expand its crackdown on the internet in the coming days and weeks.
