Ethiopia airs jihadi film amid sensitive Muslim protest trial
The strategic Horn of Africa country is one-third Muslim and two-thirds
Christian; why is its state-TV ginning up religious tension?
Weyane's propaganda Video-
<
http://news.yahoo.com/ethiopia-airs-jihadi-film-amid-sensitive-muslim-prote
st-172548626.html>
http://news.yahoo.com/ethiopia-airs-jihadi-film-amid-sensitive-muslim-protes
t-172548626.html
By William Davison | Christian Science Monitor - Fri, Feb 15, 2013
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ethiopia> Ethiopia, a
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+States> US ally in the battle
against <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Al+Qaeda> Al Qaeda-affiliated
militants in <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Somalia> Somalia, added
to mounting worries about religious discord in the diverse east African
state by screening a provocative documentary on Islamic extremism.
Ethiopian Muslims are furious about the film, which they say dishonestly
blurs the distinction between legitimate political protest and violence by
using lurid images of foreign terrorists that have nothing to do with them.
The program, Jihadawi Harekat (Holy War Movement), ran on state-TV at peak
watching hours last week, and it associates local Muslim protesters now on
trial with militant groups such as
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Nigeria> Nigeria's brutal
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Boko+Haram> Boko Haram movement and
Somalia's <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Al-Shabaab> Al Shabab, as
well as unrelated Ethiopian militants.
Currently, 29 leaders of a Muslim protest movement, and representatives of
two Islamic charities are on trial in
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Addis+Ababa> Addis Ababa, facing
charges of plotting violence to create an Islamic state. The trial is being
held behind closed doors in order to protect some 200 witnesses, according
to the government.
RECOMMENDED:
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2011/0127/Think-you-know-Africa-Take-
our-geography-quiz/Question-5> Think you know Africa? Take our geography
quiz.
The Muslim defendants were arrested in August after nearly a year of
nonviolent protests over what they allege is unconstitutional Ethiopian
state meddling in Islamic affairs.
"The risks posed by violent religious radicalism in Ethiopia are not
imaginary," says Jon Abbink, senior researcher from the African studies
center at <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Leiden+University> Leiden
University in <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Netherlands> the
Netherlands. "But the documentary is probably over-doing it; the
susceptibility of Muslims in Ethiopia to Al Qaeda-like radicalization is
slim," he says, adding that the film would appear to "delegitimize" peaceful
political disagreements by Muslims and set up the possibility of a
"backlash."
Ethiopia is considered a stronghold of Sufism, an approach to the practice
of Islam sharply at odds with that of Al Qaeda and aligned groups. The area
has been heralded for centuries for the largely peaceful co-existence of its
varied religious communities - though concerns are rising over extremism.
Twice in recent years the Army has invaded Somalia to pursue and combat
Islamist militants and salafis whose influence is said to be increasing on
the Ethiopian side of the border.
Muslims make up a third of a population of around 90 million in
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Sub-Saharan+Africa> sub-Saharan
Africa's second-most populous nation, according to
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Central+Intelligence+Agency> CIA
statistics. There are an estimated 57 million Christians.
Ethiopia's key position in the
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Horn+of+Africa> Horn of Africa -
adjacent to volatile Somalia and
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Sudan> Sudan and in close proximity to
the <
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Middle+East> Middle East and
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/North+Africa> North Africa - gives it
an importance in the eyes of Western nations. It receives some $3 billion in
strategic aid from various donors and
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Washington%2c+DC> Washington has looked
on approvingly as Ethiopian troops take on militants in Somalia and as its
peacekeepers patrol the flash-point Sudanese region of Abyei.
In return, Ethiopia allows the US to fly surveillance drones over Somalia
from the southern Ethiopian city of Arba Minch.
STOKING TENSIONS
The Muslims who protested (largely peacefully) for nearly a year are led by
a 17-man committee from the Awalia Muslim Mission school.
Those on trial say the state is leading a coercive campaign, pushing the
nation's 31 million Muslims towards identifying with a more moderate strain
of Islam called Al Ahbash. They allege the government is fearful of a
perceived new radical Islamic impulse and is attempting to strengthen its
control of Ethiopia's main Islamic national council.
The group is demanding that Muslims be allowed to run their own affairs, and
for their leaders to be released.
Government officials claim the campaign is a stalking-horse for extremists
planning an Islamic takeover.
Last week, in the midst of hot debate over the trial of the 29, Ethiopian
Television [ETV] ran the hour long documentary, and then repeated it on
consecutive days at peak-time after the news.
While authorities may have intended their documentary to be informative, it
has in fact stoked fears among Christians about Muslim intentions, and
reignited mass protests by Muslims at mosques.
The film starts with shots of Al Shabab fighters in Somalia and scenes of
carnage following Boko Haram bomb attacks in Nigeria. Then it segued to
interviews with alleged militants, some from a cell of 15 Ethiopians
recently arrested.
In the film, one man, Aman Assefa, told the cameras they were planning
attacks in Ethiopia after being trained and armed by Al Shabab.
Then, inexplicably, clips of interviews with some of the 29 on trial and of
speeches from Awalia leaders followed. Then interviews with ordinary
Ethiopian citizens appeared, saying that the Muslim group's demands for more
religious autonomy were bogus because there is ample religious freedom in
Ethiopia.
In a phone interview after the film was aired, government spokesman Shimeles
Kemal said the documentary revealed "loosely connected terror networks" in
Ethiopia, with shared objectives.
"The whole thing was coordinated by the government," says Kedir Mohammed, a
taxi driver, expressing skepticism.
In recent days, some 90,000 Muslims, the biggest grouping since Ramadan in
August, gathered around Grand Anwar, the largest mosque in Ethiopia, located
in the Muslim-majority market area of Addis Ababa, after Friday prayers last
week to respond. Signs proclaimed "ETV is a liar" and "ETV. Made in False."
"This is going to increase more and more until those people are released,"
says Mr. Kedir the taxi driver.
"There's no fear but people became more angry with the government," says
17-year-old trader Abdulkarim Mohammed.
PROPAGANDA OR PUBLIC INFORMATION?
Opposition politicians were similarly outraged when ETV, the only Ethiopian
broadcaster, screened a comparably skewed program, Akeldama [Field of
Blood], just as charismatic critics of the government Eskinder Nega and
Andualem Arage were being prosecuted last year.
Dissidents view the latest broadcast as the natural act of a police state
that is intolerant of dissent and dependent on divisive propaganda to focus
public attention away from its misrule.
"Keep on recording at least half of your crimes, that is part of our
collective memory," exiled Addis Neger newspaper editor Mesfin Negash wrote
in a statement addressed to "Dear Oppressors" on
<
http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Facebook+Inc.> Facebook.
"The only thing I like about your court drama is this aspect of recording
your history of injustice and the crime you are committing in the name of
justice."
Many ordinary citizens were divided over the film. Even some who are
sympathetic to the government have questioned its timing in the midst of a
high profile trial. Others have praised it.
"After watching the documentary my mother said something like 'I didn't know
terrorist were that organized in Ethiopia and a threat to our country,' "
says one viewer who said she considered the program "ridiculous" propaganda.
"She said the government has done the right thing to crackdown before it
gets worse."
A middle-aged rental agent from a Christian family alleged that a quarter of
Muslims support extremists and that many newly wealthy Muslims are building
mosques with cash from Gulf states, in a comment expressing typical
frustration and suspicions among Christians.
"The government is trying to reduce the power of Muslims," he says, after
asking for the interview to be moved away from a Muslim-owned property.
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Received on Fri Feb 15 2013 - 14:49:33 EST
