Iman University

Iman University
TypeUniversity
Established1993
Address
Sanaa, Yemen

Iman University (also al-Iman University, el-Eman University, or al-Eman University; Arabic: جامعة الإيمان; Jāmiʿat al-Īmān) is a Sunni religious school founded in 1993[1] in Sanaa, Yemen.[2][3] Al-Iman means the Faith.

As of January 2010, it reportedly had 6,000 students.[4]

Its founder and principal director was Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, who was classified by the US Treasury as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist,[5] and who was also under sanction by the United Nations.[6] In 2004, he was designated a terrorist associated with al-Qaeda by both the U.S. and the United Nations.[7][8] He was co-founder of Islah (a Yemeni opposition party) and was theological adviser to Osama bin Laden.[1]

The statement made by the U.S. Treasury mentions that some students at Iman University have been arrested for political and religious murders. Some believe that the school's curriculum deals mostly, if not exclusively, with Islamist studies, and that it is an incubator of extremism.[7][9] Students are suspected of having assassinated three American missionaries, and "the number two leader for the Yemeni Socialist Party", Jarallah Omar.[5] John Walker Lindh, now serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with his participation in Afghanistan's Taliban army, is a former student of the university.[7][8]

After the Battle of Sanaa (2014), the Houthi movement in San‘a’ closed the Al-Iman University.[10]

  1. ^ a b Erlanger, Steven (18 January 2010). "At Yemen's Al Eman University, Scholarship and Jihadist Ideas". The New York Times. Yemen. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  2. ^ Arabic website of Iman University
  3. ^ English website Archived 12 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine of Iman University
  4. ^ Rayment, Sean (3 January 2010). "Detroit terror attack: Britain sends counter-terrorist forces to Yemen". Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  5. ^ a b United States Designates bin Laden Loyalist Archived 16 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine, United States Department of the Treasury
  6. ^ "UN 1267 Committee banned entity list". Un.org. Archived from the original on 28 July 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  7. ^ a b c Raghavan, Sudarsan (10 December 2009). "Cleric linked to Fort Hood attack grew more radicalized in Yemen". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
  8. ^ a b Schmidt, Susan; Imam From Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided Al-Qaeda; The Washington Post, 27 February 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  9. ^ Glenn R. Simpson, "Terror Probe Follows the Money," The Wall Street Journal, 2 April 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  10. ^ November 2014, Le monde diplomatique, engl. version, by Laurent Bonnefoy