Something dangerous is unfolding in the Middle East. And all Muslims should be very worried. On 8th September, Yemeni Houthi missiles struck Saudi cities and energy facilities, injuring 73 civilians. On 20th September, smoke rose near Riyadh’s King Khalid Airport after what the Houthis called a strike on “sensitive sites” in the capital and on Aramco’s export hub in Yanbu. The Saudis say they have intercepted missiles over the cities of Riyadh, Taif and Bish. The Houthis have declared a naval blockade on Saudi Red Sea ports, and Saudi air strikes have pounded Marib, Bayda and Hodeida.
For more than four years after the 2022 truce, Yemenis and Saudis had known relative calm. That calm has collapsed. If it collapses into full war, the implications for the 2 billion Muslims worldwide will be dire — spiritually, politically and economically. First, Saudi Arabia is not just another state in the Muslim world. It is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Its security is, for every Muslim, a matter of religious conscience.
When Riyadh says Houthi drones and missiles attempted to target the airspace near Jeddah and Mecca — as it did last week — that claim, true or not, ignites fury from Dakar to Jakarta. Any attack near Mecca would be a red line that cannot be crossed. If war escalates and stray missiles land anywhere near Mecca or Madina, or even if propaganda claims they have, it will be framed by both sides as a defence of Islam itself. That is how a territorial war becomes a sectarian firestorm, Sunni versus Zaydi Shia, Arab versus Persian, turning a political conflict into a religious crusade that no fatwa can contain.
Last year, 1.8 million Muslims performed the hajj. Aviation alerts have already been issued over Riyadh. Insurance for airlines flying to Jeddah will soar. For pilgrims from The Gambia and across West Africa who save for a lifetime, a war over the skies of the Hejaz would mean closed air corridors, cancelled visas, and a spiritual loss that cannot be measured in dollars. The Muslim world is already fractured over Gaza. Another Saudi-Houthi war would deepen that fracture irreparably.
On one side, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the Yemeni government, and now its new defence partners Turkey and Pakistan, who signed a mutual defence pact with Riyadh last week. On the other, the Houthis, backed politically and militarily by Iran, and rhetorically supported by segments of the Axis of Resistance who will portray the war as “aggression against the oppressed.” This will force every Muslim government to choose. Do we support Riyadh, the host of the OIC and the historic mediator, or do we remain silent to appease Tehran? Sudan, Somalia, Malaysia, and even The Gambia — all dependent on both Saudi aid and Iranian sympathy — will be caught in the middle. The OIC, already paralysed on Gaza, would become irrelevant.
Worse, it would fuel the narrative that Muslim countries fight each other with more ferocity than they confront the occupation in Palestine. The youths of the Ummah, who are already disillusioned, will ask: Why is there a coalition for Yemen, but not for Gaza?
In the event of such a war, countries like The Gambia will pay the highest price. A war that closes the Bab el-Mandeb — through which 12% of world trade and much of the food aid to East Africa passes — will send rice and fuel prices soaring. Brent already jumped 15% to US$122 after the Yanbu attack. For Yemen, where 20 million depend on the port of Hodeida, it is famine.
A war will also displace millions more Yemenis — who are Muslims — into Djibouti, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia itself, creating a new refugee crisis that Muslim states, not the West, will have to absorb. The Prophet (SAW) said the Ummah is like one body; if one limb aches, the whole body aches. Today, that body is aching in Taiz, in Abha, and in Riyadh. The scholars, the OIC, and the elders of this Ummah must step in now to demand an immediate ceasefire, a protection pact for the Haramain, and a return to the Omani-mediated talks. If Saudi and the Houthis go to all-out war, there will be no victor. There will only be a deeper wound in an already bleeding Muslim world.
President Barrow as host of the past OIC Summit should live up to his responsibility and try to broker a de-escalation of tensions and prevent war between Saudi Arabia and its allies and Iran-the Houthis and their allies.