Posted: 24 Apr 2015 01:06 AM PDT
The
history of Islam is incomplete without mentioning Ethiopia. The African
country is haven of the first migration or hijra when Muslims fled
persecution and torture from the Quraishi tribe in Makkah.
The then King of Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was known, King Negus sheltered strangers who belonged to another religion, Islam, whereas himself was born a devout Christian. He was a devoted humble man who paraded tolerance of the highest order. King Negus was a person renowned for justice and in whose land human rights were cherished.
His spirit of embracing was far reaching, and his conversion to Islam signalled a victory to Muslims. It is this land, for Muslims, which become synonymous with freedom from persecution and emancipation from fear.
What then happened?
Thousands years later the very same country which housed and fed Muslims is on the forefront of persecuting them. In the picture comes in the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, a man whose hate for Muslims goes beyond description. He has discarded the values laid by King Negus, and is on a mission to wipe out Islam and Muslims.
When he took over the reins after the death of Meles Zenawi, Desalegn has led a crack down on Muslims protesting the seizing of their religious freedom. In 2012, the Ethiopian government charged 29 protestors with terrorism and attempting to establish an Islamic state. The protests were triggered by the perceived government interference in religious affairs.
Since July 2011, Muslims have demanded that the current members of the Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (Majlis) be replaced by elected representatives and that elections for Majlis representatives are held in mosques. Some members of the Muslim community accuse the Ethiopian Government of controlling the Majlis and sponsoring the propagation of Al-Ahbash, a little known sect of Islam.
Imposing new doctrines on Muslims
Amin Mohamud Aden is from Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia, Degehbur zone but currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa. A few weeks ago he received a message that one person was killed by security agents many injured in skirmishes after an Ahbash imam refused to allow them to continue studying Islamic books in the masjid in Jigjiga town.
“In the past few years the government has been pushing to impose forcefully on the Muslims a little known group or sect Al Ahbash believed to have originated from Lebanon. In 2011, the government launched a campaign it said was to create awareness about radicalisation.
It was holding seminars, workshops and inviting only the so called scholars from this sect. By then the Muslims had no idea of what was going on only to realise later these scholars were preaching very strange concepts that were foreign to Islam,” he said.
Incidences of torture and disappearance have been on the rise in Ethiopia after the government exported a new form of Islam that has no bearing to Muslims. Muslims who have resisted this new sect are either imprisoned or exiled.
“Ethiopia forcefully imposes a strange sect on the Muslims and they are shot at with live ammunitions indiscriminately in different cities leaving many dead and injuring others. For example in the city of Harar dozens of people died, and yet they are accused of terrorism,” he told Cii News.
He said when the Muslims complained to the government, the response was very brutal which resulted in the forceful dismissal of Majlis members replacing them with Ahbash sect members.
Beginning in December 2011, tens of thousands have protested following every Jumuah, nationwide. The heart of campaign has been the Awalia Mosque and the Islamic school in Addis Ababa.To negotiate with the government an Arbitration committee of 17 religious leaders was formed.
Among their demands were the ending government imposition of al-Ahbash on Ethiopian Muslims and re-opening of schools and mosques. By July 2012, the negotiations had failed and the protests increased in both size and frequency
Al-Ahbash, unknown sect of Islam
The Al-Ahbash is also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects in Lebanon which was founded by Abdullah ibn Muhammad al Hirari, nicknamed ’al Habashi’, after his Ethiopian roots.
According to Yuunus Hajji Mul’ataa the sect was founded in 1930 in Lebanon as a charitable society. It was headed, after 1983, by Abdullah al Harari (1920-2008), a Sufi leader of Ethiopian origin. Al-Habashi, who moved from Ethiopia to Syria, taking his miguidance with him, and he moved about in that region until he settled in Lebanon, where he started to call people to his way.
His number of followers increased and his ideas – which are a mixture of the ideas of a group which misinterpreted the attributes of Allaah, the a philosophical group many of whose ideas differ from those of Ahl al-Sunnah, grave-worshippers and Sufis – began to spread.
He fanatically supported his ideas by engaging in debates and printing books and leaflets which propagate them.
Eminent Muslim scholar, Dr. `Ali Jum`ah, Professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University gave this ruling about this sect,
“This sect follows `Abdullah Al-Harary Al-Habashi, and it has surface and deep levels. At the surface, this sect seems to adhere to the Shafi`i School of Jurisprudence. However, at the deep level, their main intention is to corrupt the Muslim creed and incite sedition amongst the Muslims. Moreover, they are paid agents to the enemies of Islam.
Crackdown on Muslims condemned
In 2012, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a statement that it is “deeply concerned about the increasing deterioration of religious freedoms for Muslims in Ethiopia.”
UCSRIF makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress of the United States.
“The U.S. government should raise with the new leadership in Addis Ababa the importance of abiding by Ethiopia’s own constitution and international standards on freedom of religion of belief. USCIRF has found that repressing religious communities in the name of countering extremism leads to more extremism, greater instability, and possibly violence,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett.
Writing on AfricanArguements.org, Horn of Africa Specialist at the LBJ School of Public Affairs Alemayehu Fentaw said there is little evidence to support the Ethiopian Government’s claim that its own Muslim community poses a legitimate threat to national and regional security.
“The current Ethiopian Government seeks to keep Western support and aid flowing into the country through characterizing the Muslim community as linked to Islamic radicals and thus a threat to national security,” he said.
He said interference the Ethiopian government is undertaking within religious institutions is unacceptable. He noted that any sponsorship by the government of a religious sect over others or any attempt of privileging one religion over another is illegitimate.
Source
The then King of Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was known, King Negus sheltered strangers who belonged to another religion, Islam, whereas himself was born a devout Christian. He was a devoted humble man who paraded tolerance of the highest order. King Negus was a person renowned for justice and in whose land human rights were cherished.
His spirit of embracing was far reaching, and his conversion to Islam signalled a victory to Muslims. It is this land, for Muslims, which become synonymous with freedom from persecution and emancipation from fear.
What then happened?
Thousands years later the very same country which housed and fed Muslims is on the forefront of persecuting them. In the picture comes in the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, a man whose hate for Muslims goes beyond description. He has discarded the values laid by King Negus, and is on a mission to wipe out Islam and Muslims.
When he took over the reins after the death of Meles Zenawi, Desalegn has led a crack down on Muslims protesting the seizing of their religious freedom. In 2012, the Ethiopian government charged 29 protestors with terrorism and attempting to establish an Islamic state. The protests were triggered by the perceived government interference in religious affairs.
Since July 2011, Muslims have demanded that the current members of the Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (Majlis) be replaced by elected representatives and that elections for Majlis representatives are held in mosques. Some members of the Muslim community accuse the Ethiopian Government of controlling the Majlis and sponsoring the propagation of Al-Ahbash, a little known sect of Islam.
Imposing new doctrines on Muslims
Amin Mohamud Aden is from Ogaden region in eastern Ethiopia, Degehbur zone but currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa. A few weeks ago he received a message that one person was killed by security agents many injured in skirmishes after an Ahbash imam refused to allow them to continue studying Islamic books in the masjid in Jigjiga town.
“In the past few years the government has been pushing to impose forcefully on the Muslims a little known group or sect Al Ahbash believed to have originated from Lebanon. In 2011, the government launched a campaign it said was to create awareness about radicalisation.
It was holding seminars, workshops and inviting only the so called scholars from this sect. By then the Muslims had no idea of what was going on only to realise later these scholars were preaching very strange concepts that were foreign to Islam,” he said.
Incidences of torture and disappearance have been on the rise in Ethiopia after the government exported a new form of Islam that has no bearing to Muslims. Muslims who have resisted this new sect are either imprisoned or exiled.
“Ethiopia forcefully imposes a strange sect on the Muslims and they are shot at with live ammunitions indiscriminately in different cities leaving many dead and injuring others. For example in the city of Harar dozens of people died, and yet they are accused of terrorism,” he told Cii News.
He said when the Muslims complained to the government, the response was very brutal which resulted in the forceful dismissal of Majlis members replacing them with Ahbash sect members.
Beginning in December 2011, tens of thousands have protested following every Jumuah, nationwide. The heart of campaign has been the Awalia Mosque and the Islamic school in Addis Ababa.To negotiate with the government an Arbitration committee of 17 religious leaders was formed.
Among their demands were the ending government imposition of al-Ahbash on Ethiopian Muslims and re-opening of schools and mosques. By July 2012, the negotiations had failed and the protests increased in both size and frequency
Al-Ahbash, unknown sect of Islam
The Al-Ahbash is also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects in Lebanon which was founded by Abdullah ibn Muhammad al Hirari, nicknamed ’al Habashi’, after his Ethiopian roots.
According to Yuunus Hajji Mul’ataa the sect was founded in 1930 in Lebanon as a charitable society. It was headed, after 1983, by Abdullah al Harari (1920-2008), a Sufi leader of Ethiopian origin. Al-Habashi, who moved from Ethiopia to Syria, taking his miguidance with him, and he moved about in that region until he settled in Lebanon, where he started to call people to his way.
His number of followers increased and his ideas – which are a mixture of the ideas of a group which misinterpreted the attributes of Allaah, the a philosophical group many of whose ideas differ from those of Ahl al-Sunnah, grave-worshippers and Sufis – began to spread.
He fanatically supported his ideas by engaging in debates and printing books and leaflets which propagate them.
Eminent Muslim scholar, Dr. `Ali Jum`ah, Professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University gave this ruling about this sect,
“This sect follows `Abdullah Al-Harary Al-Habashi, and it has surface and deep levels. At the surface, this sect seems to adhere to the Shafi`i School of Jurisprudence. However, at the deep level, their main intention is to corrupt the Muslim creed and incite sedition amongst the Muslims. Moreover, they are paid agents to the enemies of Islam.
Crackdown on Muslims condemned
In 2012, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a statement that it is “deeply concerned about the increasing deterioration of religious freedoms for Muslims in Ethiopia.”
UCSRIF makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress of the United States.
“The U.S. government should raise with the new leadership in Addis Ababa the importance of abiding by Ethiopia’s own constitution and international standards on freedom of religion of belief. USCIRF has found that repressing religious communities in the name of countering extremism leads to more extremism, greater instability, and possibly violence,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett.
Writing on AfricanArguements.org, Horn of Africa Specialist at the LBJ School of Public Affairs Alemayehu Fentaw said there is little evidence to support the Ethiopian Government’s claim that its own Muslim community poses a legitimate threat to national and regional security.
“The current Ethiopian Government seeks to keep Western support and aid flowing into the country through characterizing the Muslim community as linked to Islamic radicals and thus a threat to national security,” he said.
He said interference the Ethiopian government is undertaking within religious institutions is unacceptable. He noted that any sponsorship by the government of a religious sect over others or any attempt of privileging one religion over another is illegitimate.
Source
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