Ethiopia: The Unfair Trial of Muslim Leaders
August 12, 2015
Why It Undermines Counter-terrorism in Ethiopia
by Abadir M. Ibrahim | Addis Standard (Addis Ababa)
Something was awry at a hearing of the High Court of Ethiopia on July
6, 2015. As the much anticipated conviction of Muslim civil society
leaders (Abubaker Ahmed and 17 others) was underway, it was clear that
this was no ordinary trial.
Security was beefed up, the public gallery was crowded and the
atmosphere was tense. A significant amount of time was spent with the
court presenting a detailed defense of the government’s policies on
counterterrorism and Muslim-state relations. The court also defended the
state’s imposition of the Ahbash sect and, in an odd twist, compared
the Ahbash sect to Zoroastrianism in Iran. Given how much time was spent
on defending the government’s positions, the morning session made it
feel as if the Ethiopian state was on trial and not the other way
around.
The defendants, who spanned the ideological-denominational spectrum
within Islam, were six members of the Ethiopian Muslims Arbitration
Committee, 8 prominent Muslim scholars, two journalists, an artist and a
student who were exemplary members of society.
In December of 2011, this group started as a pressure group, and
later a protest movement, to convince the government to terminate its
“Ahbashization” project in which the government tried to force the
Ahbash sect of Lebanon as the official religion of Ethiopian Muslims. In
the weeks and months that followed talks between the Arbitration
Committee and the government broke down and the latter took control over
Islamic schools and Mosques and started appointing its agents as Imams
and teachers. As a reaction, the defendants started the Dimtsachin
Yisema (“Let our Voice be Heard”) movement, a religiously based
pro-secularism movement which skillfully and effectively deployed
methods of nonviolent action. please read more about from the link
Ethiopia: The Unfair Trial of Muslim Leaders
