Alsahwa Net- The Ministry of Human Rights for the legitimate government slammed on Thursday amendments made by the Houthis on the Yemeni Zakat Act.
Minister of Human Rights, Mohammed Askr, said that the Houthis will use the amendments “for stealing Yemen’s public resources and citizens’ incomes.”
The Houthis imposed last month the Khumus Zakat which allows the Houthis to collect 20 percent of the public resources and profits of individuals’ incomes solely for the Hashemite families.
“While the rest of the world are protesting racism ……, the Houthis chose this time to pass a law giving them the right to grab resources and redistribute it based on class,” said Bara Shiban, a Yemeni human rights activist and consultant to the Yemeni Embassy in London.
Shiban said that the Houthis’ new act is amendments to the Yemeni Zakat Act and these amendments authorize the Houthis to collect 20 percent of any “revenues coming from the land or sea including oil, gas, iron, zinc, copper, marble, fishery, pearls. etc.”.
He explained that the Khumus remains a debated issue among scholars of the Islamic sharia law because it is paid to Hashemite families which is deemed discriminatory as it “gives privileges to a certain social class in the society.”
For his part, Askr said that the Houthis’ law on the Khumus is “racist and that it establishes class divisions among the people of Yemen.”
The Houthis amendments made to the Zakat act, disagree with the principle of equal citizenship that was affirmed by the Yemeni constitution, the government says.
Askr concluded that the amendments made by the Houthis on the Khumus disagree with the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination which was signed by Yemen and several other states around the world.
