The Huthi rebellion is very much about a travesty of justice, at least for those who belong to the movement. It is not about reviving the millennial experience of the Zaydi Imamate, nor about establishing a new caliphate. Yemen is not about to host a second Shi’a-dominated theocracy. The anti-American rhetoric is there, with good reason given that Salih used much of America’s military aid against his political foes and not on the “terrorists” for whom it was targeted.

Unlike Bin Laden, whose original Al-Qaida was headquartered in a foreign land, the leader of the Huthi movement has a stake in rebuilding his own country. Their problem is with the Salih regime, not their fellow Yemenis. Thus, it is not surprising that the Huthis recently formed a political party to participate in the evolving political process. Their activities can be followed online on the website: http://ansaruallah.net.

The media focus on Al-Qaida in Yemen obscures the complicated dynamics of the evolving political processes in Yemen. Yes, there are former allies of Bin Laden who happened to be Yemeni and returned to their homeland, but the few who have tried to carry on the fight have not made much headway in damning the United States as the number one problem.

Whatever you want to call the various political groups chanting “Allahu Akbar,” remember that their primary goal is to free Yemen from the oppression of the dictatorial state which Salih ran. There is a long list of grievances in the south, as there are in the north. Yemen is also an extremely poor country on an extremely rich peninsula, unemployment is staggering and human development indicators have tanked. No one cause can explain the current turmoil, nor be used to predict the outcome of the revolution that has brought down, almost, the Salih regime.