MUSLIMS AND EPRDF IN ETHIOPIA
By: Abdelhai Nenia
Our country Ethiopia has many histories to be proud off. This includes historical facts whether it is religious, political and social issues. To mention few, Ethiopia is the land of peace that gave protection to the first Muslim migrants from Mecca, Ethiopia also remained free from European domination by the end of the 19th century. This was not an accident of history; Ethiopia secured its sovereignty by inflicting a decisive and humiliating defeat upon the Italian invaders at Adwa on March 1,1896. As Ethiopians we are very proud of our country and when the word Ethiopia comes to our mind, many of us have different kinds of feelings. The way we express it could be different but the message is directly or indirectly the same. It is the love we have to the place we were born, to the people of our community and to the culture and kindness of our people etc. Yes, we Ethiopians we may have different opinions on different issues but this is the nature of all human beings.
We may disagree on different types of agendas that touch the lives of our people but we have similar ideas when it comes to the interest of our country. This was reflected during the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Many strong opponents of the current EPRDF lead government were totally supporters of the government during the war. For Muslims when it comes to help out the national calamity, defence of our country, fighting poverty, draught, and AIDS, everyone will agree that we have equal obligation to sacrifice with our wealth and soles to our country and for our people. However when we ask for religion equality in Ethiopia, as I mentioned earlier you will find different kinds of opinions from different groups of people and a very negative one from certain groups.
In addition of being completely free from European domination, Ethiopia or Al-Habesha is a land of peace for the first migration of Muslims who fled from the reactionary Kuraysh to Axum where justice and equality was perished at a time when Ethiopia was lead by King Nagashi (Negus Armah) who later accepted Islam as his religion. The migration and protection of the first refugees including the family of our beloved prophet Mohammed (peace and blessing upon him) symbolizes the birth of freedom and expression and immunity from persecution that guarantees safety and protection.
One cannot argue that the majority of Ethiopians are Muslims and this is a matter of statistics but the regimes of the past have done what ever they can to suppress Islam and to punish Muslim Ethiopians. If we take for example the History of King Yohaness IV who consolidated power from the struggle of feudal nobility, it marks a very dark history in Ethiopia especially among Muslims. King Yohannes was one of the conservative Orthodox Christian who tried forced conversion of Muslims to Christianity. Many Ethiopian Muslims especially Tigre Muslims were persecuted, tortured, imprisoned and some lucky ones were able to flee to neighbouring countries. Most Tigre Muslims escaped to neighbouring Eritrea and scattered to low and high lands where at that time Eritrean Muslims were better off than their counter part Muslims. Many of them now live in Eritrea and they barley mention their history due to the hatred they feel about the persecution of their loved ones by King Yohannes and also due to their attachment to the people and land they make a living.
Truth is Truth and when governments and Christian historians are always tirelessly trying to hide the truth, the anger, feeling and emotions of the persecution of Muslims under King Yohannes IV is always there among Ethiopian Muslims. To make things worse the current Weyanes always try to cover the evils of King Yohannes and they place him as one of their hero. The persecution of Ethiopian Muslims under Yohannes has never been mentioned under the Woyanes. To the contrary Muslims who disrespect King Yohannes were jailed, beaten and persecuted.
When many Weyanes were asked in different occasions about the brutality of king Yohannes, they try to cover it up. Peace and prosperity doesn't come at the expense of Ethiopian Muslims and crime committed against peaceful Muslims by King Yohannes must be condemned publicly in order to teach the people that was absolutely unacceptable. When Ethiopian Muslims are oppressed to the extent they couldn't voice their concern on the street, when their freedom of speech is violated, and when they demand their right to be respected they are also stigmatized as Wahabis or to the extent as being dividers.
The Weyanes continue to play games about their unofficial hero King Yohannes IV. To make things worse and to show their defiance and disrespect to Ethiopian Muslims and especially to the innocent minority of Tigre Muslims whose scars didn't heal yet, the Weyanes named the airport of Axum, Yohannes IV. This is to show their clear agenda that always the Woyanes are against the building of a Mosque in Axum. It is irony to know that the Axumite Muslims have no place of worship unlike the Orthodox Christians who can build as much churches as they want all over Axum. Whenever the Axumite Muslims demand for their rights to be respected, the Weyanes blame involvement of outside forces to cover up their stand.
It was not the lack of a good constitution that was affecting the rights and privileges of our society for so many years, rather it is the absence of a government that can protect and implement the rights of its citizens that are clearly stated in the constitution. For your information, sub article 2 of article 27 " without prejudice to the provisions of sub-article 2 of article 90 says, believers may establish institutions of religious education and administration in order to propagate and organize their religion." This clearly shows how the current EPRDF lead government lacks its legal and moral obligation to enforce these constitutional rights.
It is astonishing to hear from senior EPRDF diplomats who visit Ethiopians abroad from time to time when they were asked why the rights of Axumite Muslims to build their place of worship is denied, instead of directly answering the question from their party stand, they said, some people say why it is not possible to build a Mosque in Mecca. Imagine, we ask them as Ethiopians and they respond to us as if we are Saudis. Bear in mind they hide their position by giving irrelevant response. We hear this for the sake of argument over and over again from a few people knowingly or unknowingly.
To those people who are mislead unknowingly, I would like to say this. First of all innocent Ethiopians should not be trapped to divide and rule system, which doesn't work for decades. Secondly, we are talking about our country Ethiopia and the rights in the constitution, for this reason Axum is not an exception. Axumite Muslims have constitutional rights to build their place of worship in Axum. Forget Axum, to the majority of Christians Vatican and Jerusalem are the most important holiest cities, however, one of the second holiest Mosque (Masgid Al Aqisa) is found in Jerusalem. Similarly a number of Mosques are found in Rome.
The current crisis in a small town called Durra (Axum) where a 100 yrs old Mosque has been burned on September 28, 2003, history is repeating itself, government officials are trying to cover it up inside and abroad and this is the reason why it is necessary to condemn the evils of the past committed by King Yohannes IV. Even though, it is too early to comment now, it seems the government is unwilling to solve the problem of Durra. The action taken by the local government of arresting victimized Muslims and the defiance and cover up of diplomats abroad has inflamed the already existing anger and mistrust of the current government. A lot has been said about the peaceful coexistence and tolerance of Muslims and Christians in Ethiopia but Peace should not be at the expense of Ethiopian Muslims. Ethiopians should understand that both religions are the way of life of Ethiopians for so many hundred years and trying to ignore the suffering of Muslims is an obstacle to our peaceful coexistence.
We Ethiopians should be able to live side by side by respecting each other and criminals who violet the rights of Ethiopian Muslims should be brought to justice immediately in order to achieve our dreams. Christian Ethiopians would benefit much better by respecting the rights and privileges of Muslims and one should not necessary has to be a Muslim in order to struggle for the rights of Ethiopian Muslims and it would be very dangerous for all of us to be trapped to the divide and rule system. Those Ethiopian Muslim citizens who defend their rights peacefully and maintain peaceful coexistence with their counter parts should also be credited and encouraged. Violence as a way of solving our problems should be condemned but in order to save the country from plunging into violent discord those currently in power must re-examine themselves critically. They should also build a bridge of hope, trust and equality with honesty among all religions in Ethiopia in order to show that they really stand for true sociological changes and religion equality so that the society can trust it is a radical departure from the past.
ABDELHAI NENIA
TORONTO, CANADA
DECEMBER, 2003
[Opinions in this article are solely that of the writer.]