Hamoud Al-Hitar (b. circa 1955) is a

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

. He served as minister of Minister of Religious Endowments and Guidance from 2008 to 2011. He is notable for leading a Yemeni jihadist rehabilitation program, called the " Committee for Religious Dialogue". According to a ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' article, Al-Hitar was an admirer of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian leader

Gamal Abdul Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

in his youth. He joined the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

in 1972, but left it in early 1980s after he became a judge. ''Newsweek'' reported that when he adjudicated the case of the murder of two Yemeni Jews in 1984 he received death threats when he broke an unspoken tradition that judges not impose the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for the killers of Jews. The jihadist rehabilitation program he leads was in operation as early as 2000. ;Media appearances In September 2009 Michelle Shephard, of the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', interviewed al-Hitari who was currently minister of Religious Endowments. Al-Hitari acknowledged that his first deradicalization program consisted mostly of senior religious clerics engaging in "theological duels" with the jihadist prisoners. He claimed the program had been "98% successful". Al-Hitari answered Shephard's questions about a report from the Countering Terrorism Center at West Point, that described his first anti-jihadist program as a failure. Al-Hitari was asked about the criticism in the West Point report that his rehabilitation program had focused merely on persuading the prisoners that Yemen should not be the target of jihad inspired violence, but it didn't spend enough energy curbing the prisoners desire to attack targets outside of Yemen. Al-Hitari responded by asking what efforts the USA had made to rehabilitate its Guantanamo captives.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitar, Hamoud Yemeni jurists Living people Jihadist rehabilitation Year of birth missing (living people) Religious affairs ministers of Yemen People from Ibb Governorate Yemeni judges Mujawar Cabinet