Religious freedom and the political order: the Ethiopian ‘secular state’ and the containment of Muslim identity politics

Abstract

The 2011–2014 controversies between the Ethiopian Government and Muslim communities on the role of Islam in Ethiopia have highlighted the precarious nature of religious relations in Ethiopia. Statements by public figures and religious leaders recently have drawn attention to the nature and scope of the Ethiopian secular state order. This paper describes the recent Muslim protest movement and the response to it by the government in the light of the secular state model. While the challenges to it also extend to the large Christian community in Ethiopia, the problems became prominent mainly in the case of the Muslims, who contest perceived ‘government interference’ in their community life and self-organization. I present an overview of key recent events and of factors inducing conflict between state and religion. The discussion makes reference to more general debates on the ‘secular model’ in Ethiopia and to the familiar though somewhat worn-out paradigm of ‘identity politics’. State repression of Muslim civic protest in Ethiopia revealed insecurities of the state: rather than an instance of the process of ‘othering’ a religious community, we see a case of political crisis, and a search for new modes of governance of diversity and communal religiosity in Ethiopia. As a result of the contestations, however, the secular order of the country will not be threatened, but modified.

Keywords:

• politics and religion
• Ethiopia
• Muslims
• secularism
• identity politics
• public sphere

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the anonymous referees of the Journal of Eastern African Studies for comments on a previous version of this paper. I dedicate this paper to the memory of Berhanu Gebeyehu (1964–2010), incomparable friend and colleague.

Notes

1. Todorov, In Defense, 6–7, 63–4; cp. also Habermas, “Religion.”

2. Hackett, “Regulating Religious Freedom,” 853.

3. Abbink, “Transformations of Islam,” 66–7; and Hussein, “Coexistence,” 5.

4. Abbink, “Religion in Public Spaces.”

5. See: www.onislam.net, http://blog.ethiopianmuslims.net, www.badrethiopia.org and www.bilaltube.com. See also LEBMA, The Civil Rights Movement.

6. And the lower Naiba and Qadis courts, recognized by law since 1944. The establishment of the Shari'a courts was reaffirmed in Proclamation 188/1999 (Federal Negarit Gazeta no. 10, 1999).

7. Corazza, “State and Religion,” noted: ‘There is an absurd and evident contradiction between the principle of separation [of religion and state, J.A.] and the mechanism of recognition of religious and customary courts…’ 389.

8. See also Seidel's pertinent remarks, “State-Recognized Legal Pluralism,” 13.

9. Analytically, ‘reformist’ is a misnomer. It is a Muslim native term, suggesting a positive turn towards a ‘correct Islam’. Many Sufist Muslims would disagree.

10. In interviews in the countryside in Wollo (2004, 2006) people always mentioned Saudi funding of a new mosque or school. See also Erlich, Saudi Arabia; and Dereje, “The Potential.”

11. For example, see US Embassy Addis Ababa, “Countering Wahabi Influence”; and “Religious Conflict.”

12. Haustein and Østebø, “EPRDF's Revolutionary Democracy,” 762.

13. HRCO, 120th Special Report, 4.

14. HRCO, 117th Special Report.

15. Cf. www.addisnegeronline.com, message of 10 March 2010 (accessed 5 April 2012).

16. ‘Muslim Students of Bahirdar University opposed the new religious directive’ (http://ethsat.com/?s=hijab&x=0&y=0, accessed 2 February 2013).

17. Østebø, “The Question of Becoming,” 431–2.

18. There is a Facebook group propagating the idea, under the guise of Muslim solidarity against state oppression but with wider purposes: see https://www.facebook.com/MuslimBrothersEthiopia, and also: https://twitter.com/MBEthiopia. Bawer (“The Development,” section 4.5) noted the existence of two small Muslim Brotherhood divisions in Addis Ababa, the Banaii and the Sururiya. Haustein and Østebø (“EPRDF's Revolutionary Democracy,” 765) noted that elements of the Muslim ‘Intellectualist’ movement have propagated MB ideas, including those of Yusuf al Qaradawi, the radical Egyptian MB ideologue (For his ‘thinking’, see his speeches on YouTube).

19. “Somalia Extremists Declare Jihad on Ethiopia,” The Daily Telegraph, October 10, 2006.

20. “Al-Shabaab calls for revolts in Ethiopia and Kenya” (www.africareview.com/News/Al-Shabaab-calls-for-revolts-in-Ethiopia-and-Kenya/-/979180/1119058/-/vvws2d/-/index.html#sthash.3UEVSU59.dpuf).

21. Ramos, “From Beleaguered Fortresses,” 16.

22. See, e.g. Ethiopian preacher Abu Hyder on www.youtube.com/watch?v=joIcRLVxtYI. cf. Belay, A Short Overview.

23. That they were involved is clear: www.ethiotube.net/video/18562/Must-Watch-Federal-Affairs-Minister-Dr-Shiferaw-Tmariam-admits-Ahbash-Imported-by-Ethiopian-Government-from-Lebanon (accessed 11 March 2013). See also Ramos, “From Beleaguered Fortresses,” 23–4.

24. See also Anonymous, “It is the Right and Duty.”

25. For example, Ubah Abdusalam, “The ‘Ahbashism’ Campaign”; and Ahmedin, “Ahbash.” Also the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/AntiAhbashMuslims.Ethiopia and a website: http://ethioantiahbashism.com. See also the “Action Plan to Combat the Corrupt Majlis and its Ahbashism Campaign,” of 8 March 2012, on www.bilaltube.com/articles/browse-AHBASH-3.html#sthash.upRcX6WJ.h9bWVgQj.dpbs (accessed 10 January 2013).

26. Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Constitutional Rights for Religion and the Rule of Law,” A Week in the Horn, April 27, 2012.

27. Aaron Maasho, “Ethiopian Muslims Protest Government ‘Interference,’” Reuters News, May 11, 2012.

28. See: www.ethiotube.net/video/19552/Breaking-News-Ethiopian-governments-warns-Muslims-gathering-at-Awolia-School-against-Ahbash--Mejlis (3 May 2012, accessed 2 February 2012).

29. Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia: Prominent Muslims Detained in Crackdown,” August15, 2012 (www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/15/ethiopia-prominent-muslims-detained-crackdown).

30. “Ethiopian Muslim Election Turns Violent,” October 23, 2012 (online at: www.theafricareport.com/20121023501820528/society-and-culture/ethiopian-muslim-election-turns-violent.html, accessed 28 October 2012).

31. W. Davison, “Ethiopia airs Jihadi Film Amid Sensitive Muslim Protest Trial,” Christian Science Monitor, February 14, 2013.

32. US Embassy Addis Ababa, “Religious Conflict.”

33. “Ethiopian Regime War on Ancient Ethiopian Monasteries,” Press Release Ethiopian Heritage Society of North America, March 24, 2012 (http://ehsna.org/?p=1032). See also the expression of support by Haji Mohamed Seid's (diaspora-based Ethiopian Muslim leader) for the Waldubba monastery, at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNdybGlpseM (accessed 10 February 2013).

34. The wider context of the government's policies is that of Islamist terror threats in the region: the Somali Al-Shabaab and its jihadist propaganda, the past violent attacks of Al Ittihad al Islami, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia (1990s) and the small Takfir wal Hijra groups (‘Khawarijj’).

35. Probably resulting from Edward Said's deeply flawed and tendentious study Orientalism (1978).

36. At: http://sodere.com/video/ethiopia-full-jehadawi-harakat-etv-documentary (accessed 20 February2013).

37. In January 2014, the latest ETV film on “Terrorism in Ethiopia” (part 4) was screened (www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0nbSI3wkj8; accessed 27 January 2014).

38. But see Dereje, “The Potential.”

39. See, e.g. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwKtoBDDwTQ.

40. See Østebø, Localizing Salafism; Desplat, “Heilige Stadt”; Dereje, “The Transnational Politics”; also Desplat and Østebø, “Muslims in Ethiopia.”

41. Sayyid Qutb, for instance, ‘denounced the idea of the secular state as a kind of blasphemy, an attempt to usurp the will of God by passing laws that have a merely human authority’ (Scruton, “Democracy”).

42. Already evident in Hussein Ahmed's work, describing several radical-Muslims in nineteenth-century Wällo with bonds to Sufist Islam: Hussein, Islam, 177, 179 “Al-Hajj Bushra,” 178–9, 185.

43. A serious example is the radical Egyptian preacher featuring at a 2012 meeting of Muslims in the Ethiopian-American diaspora, ‘advising’ the Ethiopian Muslims on future strategy. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k_cE74gn9A&feature=share (accessed 20 February 2013).

44. Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life, Tolerance and Tension, 3, 26 and 27 for figures on adherence and commitment to religion in Africa.

45. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqyWLjtN_cc; www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdeqMbJ4AI; and www.ethiotube.net/video/18010/Ethiopian-Muslims-Spring--Denouncing-Ahbash-and-Majlis-at-the-Awolia-College--2-of-2 (accessed 30 February 2013). See also Anonymous, Addis Ababa, 2011 p.18 line 855.

46. Interview with a former secretary of the Muslim Council, Addis Ababa, 20 October 2006; and interview with Muslim youngsters near Anwar Mosque, Addis Ababa, 18 November 2012.

47. See Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life, “Tolerance and Tension,” 11.

48. Erlich, Saudi Arabia, 189, 200, 209, and my numerous interviews in Wollo and Addis Ababa, 2004, 2006, 2011.

49. See the pertinent comment by Omer Shifaw, “Pebbles for Grains: A Story of Betrayal,” November 27, 2012 (www.awrambatimes.com/?p=4772, accessed 8 December 2012).

50. Dereje, “The Transnational Politics,” 1903–04.

51. Dereje, “The Transnational Politics,” 1908.

52. There is only a 2008 ‘Directive on Secularism in Educational Institutions’, issued by the Ministry of Education, based on constitutional article 90(2), and an unofficial warning given by the Government in late 2011, prohibiting insulting or defamatory religious polemics, in line with constitutional article 27(5). This led to a decline in polemical publications and video compact discs (VCDs) on sale in Ethiopia. See also: “Ethiopia to write a new law on public display of religion” (www.ezega.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?Page=news&NewsID=3388, accessed 11 March 2013). The 2008 directive met with blanket refusal by several Muslim Councils: see “Draft regulation is unacceptable” - Addis Ababa Ulema Council and East Hararghe Majlis', 8 February 2008, on: http://blog.ethiopianmuslims.net/?p=220 (accessed 4 January 2013).

53. Berhane, “The Scope of Religious Freedom,” 188–9.

54. Despite theological objections made to it by Salafists and other Muslims (e.g. Ahmedin, “Ahbash”; “Ahbash and Sufiyya,” 8 March 2012, on www.bilaltube.com/articles/read-ahbash-sufiya_117.html#sthash.YSo3OV9b.dpbs; “Exposing Abd Allah al-Harari and his sect the Ahbash of Lebanon,” on: http://sectarianrefutations.blogspot.nl/2011/12/exposing-abd-allah-al-harari-and-his.html; and in a puzzling text, “Some info about Ahbash,” on: http://notoahbashinethiopia.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/some-info-about-ahbash). Their arguments are quite contested.

55. See Kabha and Erlich, “Al-Ahbash,” 522; and Desplat, “Heilige Stadt,” 210–15.

56. As Jawar noted: ‘Granted religious moderation is a vital state interest, such moderation ought to be engineered from within rather than being imposed externally’. Jawar Mohammed, “Muslim Activism and the Ethiopian State: Accommodation or Repression?” (24 March 2012) at: http://nazret.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/24/growing-muslim-activism-and-the-ethiopian-state-accommodation-or-repression?blog=15 (accessed 10 December 2012). Jawar's credibility was, however, seriously dented by the row over his perceived extremist views in a 2013 speech; see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMLLmAMWdG8.

57. Cf. Lafont's excellent “Religion and the Public Sphere.”