http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/24/radical-islam-risesin-us-ally-ethiopia/?page=all#pagebreak
Radical Islam rises in U.S. ally Ethiopia
By Ioannis Gatsiounis - Special to The Washington Times
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
KAMPALA, Uganda — Clashes between Islamic protesters and riot police
over the weekend in Ethiopia have raised fears that Muslims are
becoming increasingly radical in a predominantly Christian country
that has been a key U.S. ally in combating terrorism in the Horn of
Africa.
Muslims on Saturday blocked police from entering the Anwar Mosque in
the west of the capital, Addis Ababa, a week after a mass protest at
an African Union summit in the city led to 71 arrests.
Muslims accuse the government of illegally interfering in Islamic
affairs by closely monitoring their activities at mosques and forcing
clerics to practice Al Ahbash, an apolitical Lebanese-born sect of
Islam. Ethiopia’s constitution bans government meddling in religious
practices.
The government accuses agents from Saudi Arabia and neighboring Sudan
and Somalia of promoting Salafism and Wahhabism, which are extremist
forms of Islam. In April, four Muslims were killed after police
arrested an Islamic cleric accused of preaching Salafism in the town
of Asasa. A month later, the government deported two Arabs of unknown
origin, saying they incited violence outside Addis Ababa’s largest
mosque.
Ethiopia’s roughly 25 million Muslims make up about 30 percent of the
population and traditionally have practiced a moderate form of the
faith informally associated with Sufism.
Hassan Hussein, an Ethiopian human rights activist, said continued
government harassment of Muslims runs the risk of stoking calls for
toppling Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government.
“The protesters know that they have the support of the majority of the
population so long as their demand is for civil liberties and
democratic freedoms. Other sectors could press similar demands, and it
might escalate into calls for regime change as has happened in the
Arab Spring,” he said.
Complicating the rising tensions is the unknown health of Mr. Zenawi,
who was last seen in public several weeks ago appearing thinner than
usual. Communications Minister Bereket Simon last week assured
journalists that Mr. Zenawi’s “health condition is very good and
stable,” but declined to go into specifics. Opposition websites say
the prime minister is terminally ill with brain cancer.
Jawar Mohammed, an analyst on Ethiopian affairs, said information from
the government on Mr. Zenawi’s health and whereabouts is “conflicting
and confusing.”
“All indications show that he has not been in charge of the state at
least for a month,” Mr. Mohammed said.
“He has not been responding to the Muslim protests either. While the
government claims that Meles will resume his duties soon, most people
believe that the regime is just buying time for orderly succession.”
Mr. Zenawi, who took power at the end of the Ethiopian Civil War in
1991 and was re-elected in 2005, has tolerated little dissent,
claiming protests disrupt the country’s rapid development. He has
attracted strong foreign investment through low taxes and easy access
to land. Economic growth has averaged more than 10 percent over the
past eight years.
Critics say the regime’s heavy-handedness, more than outside
influence, is radicalizing Ethiopia’s Muslim community.
“Heeding the demands of the protesters can resolve the issue,” said
Hassen Hussein, a human rights activist and assistant professor of
leadership and management at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Muslims say their mosques are under 24-hour surveillance, their homes
have been invaded, and the government forces mosque officials on them.
Christians, too, have struggled for religious freedom under Mr.
Zenawi’s regime, which appointed its own choice for patriarch of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Muslims also accuse the government of exaggerating the threat of
Islamic extremism to receive more Western financial and logistical
support to combat terrorism in the region.
Ethiopia has been a key Western ally in diminishing the al
Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militant group in neighboring Somalia. Mr.
Zenawi was one of just four African leaders invited to the Group of
Eight meeting in May at Camp David in Maryland.
Received on Wed Jul 25 2012 - 13:08:40 EDT
