The Voice of Ummah: On the same day that Pakistan Ulema Council chairman Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi stood at a Lahore pulpit branding Yemen’s Ansarullah a “terrorist militia,” US President Donald Trump was telling reporters at the White House that “Israel has been very helpful to Saudi Arabia.” It was not a Yemeni spokesman who placed Israel on Saudi Arabia’s side in the war on Yemen. It was the US president himself, and Israeli and American media have spent weeks documenting how.
During his Friday sermon on October 16 at the Bahria Town Jamia Mosque in Lahore, according to an Arabic summary posted on his official X account, Ashrafi said: “We know you, and those who support you, and what you want… and we will not allow you that.” The sermon was part of a “Day of Condemnation” called by the Pakistan Ulema Council and marked the same day, with the same message, from pulpits in Pakistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In his posts on Yemen, Tahir Ashrafi repeated the charge that Ansarullah targets Makkah and Madinah.
The Makkah and Madinah charge: what Sanaa says
Yemen’s Foreign Ministry has called the accusation a “great slander” and says it is ready to refute it before any neutral party. When Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree warned airlines that Saudi airspace was unsafe, he explicitly excluded the airspace of Makkah and Madinah. Saree says Yemen’s operations are defensive and will continue until the Saudi aggression and blockade end. Neither fact was heard from a pulpit that invoked the sanctity of the Two Holy Mosques.
What the reports say
The sermon was silent on a growing body of reporting on Israeli and American help to Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen:
- Middle East Eye, October 16: Trump, asked whether Riyadh should accept Israeli help against Ansarullah: “Yeah, I do, sure. Israel has been very helpful to Saudi Arabia.” (link)
- Ynet, October 16: “Saudi Arabia has indeed been receiving military assistance from Israel,” focused on “intelligence concerning potential targets”; “the Americans have asked the Israel Defense Forces to help the Saudis.” (link)
- Israel Hayom, September 15: Mohammed bin Salman sought help across the region “and indirectly Israel as well”; Israel was approached through US Central Command (CENTCOM) “with a request for intelligence and other assistance.” (link)
- Pakistan Observer, September 15: Citing Israel Hayom, Mohammed bin Salman “sought assistance from Tel Aviv, including intelligence support,” indirectly through CENTCOM. (link)
- Israel Hayom, September 16: An Israeli official: “It is absolutely clear what the Saudis are asking for,” with help “in the intelligence and early warning aspect… being realized through CENTCOM.” (link)
- Ynet, September 15: Israeli intelligence is reaching Riyadh through CENTCOM, raised in CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper’s meeting with Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah. (link)
Read More: Israel and US Behind Saudi War on Yemen: What the Reports Reveal
- Iran International, September 15: Citing the Jerusalem Post and Walla, CENTCOM-mediated Israeli-Saudi talks on intelligence on Houthi deployments. (link)
- Daily Sabah, September 15, citing Kan: After a Saudi request to Washington, Israel began supplying intelligence on Ansarullah through US intermediaries, mainly over Bab al-Mandab. Iran International recapped the Kan report on October 17. (link, link)
- Jerusalem Post, September 26: Saudi needs match Israel’s strengths: “intelligence on the Houthis, operational experience against them, detection and interception systems.” (link)
- CNN and Anadolu, September 10: More than 100 US military advisers in Saudi Arabia provide intelligence and targeting support, including a real-time targeting tool and “geospatial” targeting. (CNN, Anadolu)
- Al-Monitor, October 7: US advisers are “quietly helping Saudi commanders analyze intelligence on Houthi positions,” coupled with “US Air Force refueling sorties to keep Saudi fighter jets aloft.” (link)
- US State Department, September 17: Approved a possible sale of 48 F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia worth an estimated $24.3 billion; Saree says US-made F-15s and European Typhoons are bombing Yemen. (link)
Yemen’s martyrs the pulpit did not mention
The Health Ministry in Sanaa says Saudi attacks martyred 114 Yemenis and injured 305 between September 3 and October 15, with women and children making up the largest share. According to Saba, Saudi cluster bombs martyred three children and injured 17 people, including a pregnant woman, in Dhamar. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 74,000 Palestinians have been martyred since October 2023 by the same Israel now reported to be passing intelligence to Riyadh.
A question for Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi
Ashrafi calls Israel an “enemy of the Ummah,” yet in the same breath places Ansarullah alongside it, and as of Saturday afternoon his account carried not a word on Trump’s remarks or on any of these reports. As a religious leader who speaks in the name of Islam and the Two Holy Mosques, why has he said nothing about Saudi Arabia taking Israeli and American intelligence and military help against Muslim Yemen?
When will there be a day of condemnation for the martyred children of Dhamar? And is the pulpit’s task to promote a government’s narrative, or to stand with the oppressed?
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