With arms raised and wrists crossed, silent Muslim worshippers surrounding
the largest mosque in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, again today [Friday
July 27] peacefully protested what they call a violent government response
to legitimate demands.
The act of civil disobedience
from Muslims, who constitute at least one-third of the population, is a rare
sign of instability in a country seen by US policymakers as a bulwark
against radical Islam in the volatile Horn of Africa region.
Last month, members of a committee mediating the dispute over perceived
unconstitutional state interference in Islamic affairs were taken into
custody, while unrest broke out on two occasions around separate mosques in
the city of around 5 million people.
"We are showing solidarity with leaders who have been arrested but who are
strong," says a demonstrator named Mohammed, referring to the vigil latched
onto the end of midday prayers at Anwar Mosque. "They should be released;
they were arrested for nothing." Moments later, nervous friends ushered him
away.
Through military interventions in neighboring Somalia, crackdowns against a
separatist movement in its Muslim-majority Ogaden region, and now the
detention of Muslim activists in its capital, Ethiopia has taken on a role
as front-line defense against the spread of political Islam in East Africa.
It's a stance that broadly enjoys support from the West and neighboring
countries, but some observers argue that Ethiopia's hard line may be
creating a backlash, strengthening the appeal of insurgents whom it is
battling to suppress.
Human rights group Amnesty International called on the Ethiopian government
this week to either formally charge or to release those currently in
detention. Amnesty also called on the Ethiopian government to investigate
allegations of torture of detainees, to allow peaceful protest, and to use
"proportionality in the use of force" against demonstrators who turn
violent.
For its part, the Ethiopian government justifies its actions by saying that
the real troublemakers are a tiny minority of foreign-influence Salafi
extremists.
"This group actually deals day and night to create an Islamic state," says
Shiferaw Teklemariam, the minister responsible for religious affairs. "This
in the Ethiopian context is totally forbidden and against the constitution."
Activists scoff at the accusations. Ethiopia is a secular, multi-ethnic
state, where Orthodox Christians predominate, they say. How could any
Islamist group hope to create an Islamic state in such a country? The
dismissal is seconded by Terje Østebø, an academic at the Center for African
Studies and Department of Religion, University of Florida, who studies Islam
in the Horn of Africa. He says that Ethiopia's historically oppressed
Muslims are enthusiastic backers of the current secular system.
Islamic reformists in Ethiopia have been very little concerned with
politics, and certainly not advocated ideas in the direction of an Islamic
state," he says. "In my numerous conversations with Muslims in Ethiopia, I
never came across anyone favoring such ideas."
Other regional experts lean toward the official line that there are some
externally-supported radicals that have hijacked the language of democratic
rights to covertly pursue fundamentalism.
Protester demands
The committee's stated demands are for Islamic council elections to be held
at mosques rather than at local government offices; for the government to
stop its unconstitutional promotion of the moderate al-Ahbash sect popular
in Lebanon; and for the Awalia Mosque in Addis Ababa to be returned to the
community from a corrupted Islamic council.
The committee and its followers accuse Ethiopia's Islamic Affairs Supreme
Council of being an undemocratic body packed with government stooges.
Shiferaw, the Minister for Federal Affairs, denies any state meddling,
saying there has been no promotion of al-Ahbash, and elections that begin on
August 26 for two weeks are overseen solely by the Ulema Council of
scholars, which he describes as Ethiopian Islam's highest authority.
On July 13, violence broke out for the first time in the capital since the
nine month dispute began, after Muslims at the Awalia Mosque compound
ignored warnings from the government to not hold a sadaqa (charity)
gathering on the day that African heads of states were in town for an
African Union meeting. The real purpose of the event, which was shut down
before it began through a police raid, was to plot the Islamic takeover,
Shiferaw claims, and the timing was "deliberately provocative."
"It's about killing the image of the country and trying to destroy the trust
of African leaders in their own capital," he says. "I don't think you
quarrel with your wife when guests are at the door, if you're really genuine
enough for your wife."
The government said 74 arrests were made, which was followed a week later by
the detainment of the leadership committee based at Awalia. The crackdown,
however, did not prevent a huge number of worshippers at Anwar Mosque in the
Mercato area on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan a week later,
showing solidarity with those arrested. Ahmedin Jebel, a now-detained
spokesman for the 17-man committee, said the government's attitude betrayed
its authoritarianism. "Even if Muslims come to the AU summit to protest, if
it's peaceful, it shows Ethiopia is democratic," he says. "Preventing and
attacking shows Ethiopia is undemocratic."
Unrest followed the next day, instigated by masked extremists penning in
worshippers, according to the government. On a Saturday afternoon at one of
Africa's largest markets, all shops were shuttered and riot police patrolled
normally heaving streets.
'They want to label us'
"They want to put our questions aside and label us, saying we have a
political agenda, saying we are extremists," says Ahmedin.
Shiferaw is confident that the incidents have, in his view, unmasked
Ahmedin's group in the eyes of Ethiopian Muslims, draining any support they
had. "Heavy education" campaigns are also being conducted on state
television to show a strategic alliance between the movement and forces
including Somalia's al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab militia and secular
Ethiopian insurgents, he says. "We would like to clear any confusion and
grey areas for people who joined them without knowing who they are," he
says. "We will educate them a little bit and they will go home."
Mr. Østebø says he believes the government has misconstrued the rise in
Salafism, which he says is largely a religious movement seeking to purify
Islam. "This is not to downplay the potential of such movement becoming a
threat to political security and stability, but one should not overlook the
fact that representations of Salafism mostly take nonviolent forms," he
says.
Salafists are welcome in Ethiopia as long as they don't coerce others to
join their sect, says Shiferaw. But, at "hotspots" around the country,
extremists "bring people to the mosque, they put them to the point of the
gun and they request them if you're not converting yourself to the Wahabi,
Salafi sect, you're gone, you're subject to be killed," he argues. Activists
say such "wild allegations are the government's ploy to scare Ethiopians
about a rise in extremism, and also score points with international
backers."
While Salafism's rise has raised tensions there have been "hardly any
reports of violent confrontations between so-called Sufis and Salafis," says
Østebø.
"We are Muslims, nobody can divide us," says Ahmedin.
Bad response to real threat
Medhane Tadesse, an analyst of conflicts in the region, believes the
government is making a belated and heavy-handed response to a genuine
threat. Ethiopia has historically been a crucible for Islam's battle with
Christianity, and foreign Wahabbist forces have been - and currently are -
at work trying to control mosques and now the Islamic council to ensure
ascendance, he believes.
"Ethiopia is important because of historical significance, and because of
demography, it has more Muslims than Saudi Arabia, it's a big stake," he
says.
The government needs to make a measured response by empowering Muslims while
distinguishing foreign-influenced radicals from those with "genuine
concerns," Medhane says.
"I think it's a significant event and unless it's managed in sober and
legitimate way through democratic means then it may aggravate," he says.
"The problem of the Ethiopian state historically is rather than playing the
role of an arbiter between different interests and social classes it tries
to decide, which is counter-productive."
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Wed Aug 01 2012 - 15:42:39 EDT
