(June 05, 2012, by Ethiopia has been swept by Islamic
protests
in opposition to what the Muslim community calls the
'government-sponsored propaganda activities' of the little-known Islamic
sect, Al-Ahbash, throughout the country, and the suspension of the
Addis Ababa-based
Awolya Institute on the alleged grounds of promoting Wahhabism.
The security forces reportedly killed four and injured ten Muslims during a confrontation after Friday prayers in Assassa in April and detained a large number of protesters in Addis Ababa in May. Eleven are being tried over charges concerning a terrorist bomb-plot . According to Shimeles Kemal, the government spokesman, “The aim of the terror network was to establish an Islamic state by toppling the government.”
The protesters also accuse the Government of Ethiopia of hijacking the Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, or the Majlis. They demand that the current members of the Majlis are replaced by elected representatives. They also call for elections to be held in the city's mosques rather than in the Kebeles, local government institutions.
What are the roots of the current Islamic protests in Ethiopia? Without claiming to offer a complete account of the reasons and motivations behind these developments, this article outlines some possible explanations and important aspects.
In domestic politics, the introduction of ethnic federalism has resulted in, to borrow Milan Kundera’s expression, 'the unbearable lightness of being' Ethiopian. One undesired consequence of the constitutional enshrinement of identity politics, which extended recognition to ethnic and religious groups, rooted in historical interpretations of the marginalisation of non-Amharas and non-Christians, is the empowerment of particular religious identities such as Oromo or Muslim over a universalist national identity, that of 'being Ethiopian'. If the Islamic revival of the past two decades is the logical outcome of the rise of identity politics, radicalization is an unwanted side effect.
In international affairs, the US war on terror and Ethiopia's position as a key partner, coupled with its legitimate regional security concerns, have placed Ethiopia not only in the unenviable position of having to keep extremist elements such as Al-Shabab at bay, but also of countering the growing influence of Wahhabism at home. Most recently, fears over rising Islamism have spread widely in the wake of the Arab Spring.
The problem with this is that tyrants such as Meles Zenawi won’t hesitate to use the pretext provided by national security to capitalize on his regional role in fighting terrorism, with the aim of garnering American support that he does not deserve, given his regime's disregard of human rights and free and fair elections as documented meticulously by the US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, year after year. In the same way as Ethiopia’s military intervention in Somalia was used to annihilate regional rebels such as the ONLF and OLF, it is hard to rule out the possibility that this will also be used as another opportunity to clamp down on political dissidents. Read more from openDemocracy »
The security forces reportedly killed four and injured ten Muslims during a confrontation after Friday prayers in Assassa in April and detained a large number of protesters in Addis Ababa in May. Eleven are being tried over charges concerning a terrorist bomb-plot . According to Shimeles Kemal, the government spokesman, “The aim of the terror network was to establish an Islamic state by toppling the government.”
The protesters also accuse the Government of Ethiopia of hijacking the Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, or the Majlis. They demand that the current members of the Majlis are replaced by elected representatives. They also call for elections to be held in the city's mosques rather than in the Kebeles, local government institutions.
What are the roots of the current Islamic protests in Ethiopia? Without claiming to offer a complete account of the reasons and motivations behind these developments, this article outlines some possible explanations and important aspects.
In domestic politics, the introduction of ethnic federalism has resulted in, to borrow Milan Kundera’s expression, 'the unbearable lightness of being' Ethiopian. One undesired consequence of the constitutional enshrinement of identity politics, which extended recognition to ethnic and religious groups, rooted in historical interpretations of the marginalisation of non-Amharas and non-Christians, is the empowerment of particular religious identities such as Oromo or Muslim over a universalist national identity, that of 'being Ethiopian'. If the Islamic revival of the past two decades is the logical outcome of the rise of identity politics, radicalization is an unwanted side effect.
In international affairs, the US war on terror and Ethiopia's position as a key partner, coupled with its legitimate regional security concerns, have placed Ethiopia not only in the unenviable position of having to keep extremist elements such as Al-Shabab at bay, but also of countering the growing influence of Wahhabism at home. Most recently, fears over rising Islamism have spread widely in the wake of the Arab Spring.
The problem with this is that tyrants such as Meles Zenawi won’t hesitate to use the pretext provided by national security to capitalize on his regional role in fighting terrorism, with the aim of garnering American support that he does not deserve, given his regime's disregard of human rights and free and fair elections as documented meticulously by the US Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, year after year. In the same way as Ethiopia’s military intervention in Somalia was used to annihilate regional rebels such as the ONLF and OLF, it is hard to rule out the possibility that this will also be used as another opportunity to clamp down on political dissidents. Read more from openDemocracy »
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