Abd al-Malik al-Houthi

Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi or Abu Jibril is a Yemeni politician and religious leader who serves as the leader of the Houthi movement, a revolutionary movement principally made up of Zaidi Muslims. His brothers Yahia and Abdul-Karim are also leaders of the group, as were his late brothers Hussein, Ibrahim, and Abdulkhaliq. Abdul-Malik Houthi is the leading figure in the Yemeni Civil War which started with the Houthi takeover in Yemen in the Saada Governorate in northern Yemen. Personal life Al-Houthi was born in Saada, northern Yemen, into the Houthi family in 1982. Some sources state that he was born on 22 May 1979. He follows the Zaidiyyah branch of Shia Islam. His father, Badreddin, was a religious scholar of Yemen's minority Zaydi Shia sect. Abdul-Malik was the youngest among his eight brothers. His older brother, Hussein, was politically active and a member of the parliament of Yemen, as well as being a prominent critic of the former President of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hussein founded the Houthi movement to promote Zaidi thought, rise against the oppressors ruling Yemen, and to provide educational and social services. After Hussein was killed, Abdul-Malik succeeded him by taking control of the movement. Political activity Abdul-Malik al-Houthi criticized the Yemeni government for maintaining a status quo in the country, which he said had plunged people into poverty, and accused the government of marginalizing the Zaidi community. The Yemeni government of president Ali Abdullah Saleh accused al-Houthi's group of trying to reestablish the "clerical imamate" (Shia Islamic government), which al-Houthi denied.