Yemen's powerful Islamic political party, Islah, on Tuesday replaced one of its top leaders who Washington suspects of funding terrorism and supporting al-Qaida. The 4,000-member party voted out Sheik Abdulmajid al-Zindani, the spiritual leader of the party and head of its Shura Council since 1991, during the party's conference and replaced him with Mohammed Ali Ajilan, a Yemeni parliament member.Al-Zindani had placed U.S.-Yemen relations on edge over Yemeni authorities objection to detaining him. In February last year, U.S. President George W. Bush sent a letter to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh calling for the government of Yemen to arrest al-Zindani. The letter said al-Zindani was listed in a U.N. document as a suspected financier of terrorism and was banned from traveling. The U.S. Treasury Department placed al-Zindani on its list of suspected supporters of terror activities in February 2004, accusing him of actively recruiting for al-Qaida's terrorist training camps and playing a role in the purchase of weapons for al-Qaida and other terrorists.
Al-Zindani, who is also the president of the Islamic Al-Iman University, has denied the allegations and has called on the United States to produce evidence. He said he was not afraid of being questioned by Yemeni authorities about the charge. However, al-Zindani, believed by many to be Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentor, has incited hate against the West and come close to advocating violence in his sermons. Al-Iman University is regarded as a haven for radicals. Yemen has said repeatedly that it will not hand him, or any other wanted Yemeni, over to Washington.
During the three-day Islah conference, its members also urged the Yemeni government to pressure Washington into removing al-Zindani's name from its listed of suspected terrorism financiers.