Please Leave the Ethiopian Muslims’ Movement alone!

by Maru Zeleke

The Ethiopian Muslim population, generally reflective of the wider Ethiopian context, comprise of diverse cultures, histories and political affiliations. What ties them together is their allegiance to a common religion. This fact has been starkly reflected in the now two years but few months old peaceful struggle of Ethiopian Muslims. The movement has managed to regulate, but not eliminate, the diverse manifestations of difference within the Muslim population and channel their grievances into a unified call for freedom. This unity in diversity has been an exemplary success of the struggle, but it has by no means escaped some challenges.

The recent political reflections by Jawar have raised much dust, almost “rocky” one. Ethiopian nationalists and some Muslim activists alike have felt obliged to air their sharply critical views on it. Due to the person’s relatively high profile in Ethiopian political discourse, some aspect of the fuss is expected. But at least one aspect of it is not at all commendable.

Hinging on Jawar’s apparent association with the Ethiopian Muslim movement, some writers have tried to question his intentions behind his support for it. While some have attributed to him an ethno- Islamist agenda, others have simply made of him a political entrepreneur trying to make use of religion for political purposes. Both positions, however, have tried to accuse him not only of parochialism but also hypocrisy.

What is worse, some have gone to the extent of calling Ethiopian Muslims to distance themselves from him. The Ethiopian Muslims’ struggle, they claim, is self-evidently an Ethiopian rights’ struggle that should not be taken hostage by a few “extremists” and “ethnic nationalists”. Hence, the need for the call to “liberate” the struggle from “unwanted elements”.

In connection with this last point,–which is my concern in this short piece—it should be known by all and sundry that the Ethiopian Muslim movement is a broad-based struggle for religious freedom. It has, first, brought together Muslims from diverse backgrounds and, most importantly, political outlooks. Any conscious and concerned Muslim has immediately become part of this struggle, regardless of his/her political attitudes and associations. In fact, the strength of the movement has emanated from its openly embracing a plurality of views and background.  Second, the moral and political appeal of this historic movement has drawn the attention of a wide range of non-Muslim Ethiopians—again from diverse perspectives. They all have come by the side of Muslims in the latter’s quest for democracy, secularism, freedom and dignity. It is indeed a spectacular manifestation of the broad-based nature of this movement that it has brought together activists and supporters from all ranges of philosophical, identitarian and political settings.

It is, therefore, both futile and disastrous to require all those who support the Muslim movement to hold fast to a single conception of the political world. It is futile because all sorts of differences are simply a permanent aspect of our polity (which Muslims are a part of). It is disastrous because the more we push forward this agenda of political conformity in relation to the Muslim struggle, the more we entangle this non-political movement with the most divisive political agendas, and thereby, the more we lose the benefit we would gain by supporting it collectively as an unprecedentedly sustainable, formidable and peaceful bulwark against unbridled state autocracy.

It is also important to know that, while people of diverse views in the Diaspora have spoken in favour of this struggle, none can speak on behalf of it. All political analyst Jawar Mohammed (ethno nationalist Muslim)[1], journalist Sadiq Mohammed (Ethiopian nationalist Muslim), and activist Tamagn Beyene (Ethiopian nationalist Christian), for instance, have been highly supportive of the Muslim struggle, but none have dared to claim for themselves any leadership or representative roles. Ironically, Jawar has been the most vocal in this respect. He has time and again emphasized that Diasporas like him can never represent or lead the peaceful struggle back home; only those inside, and those at the battlefront are the actual participants in it. Thus, it is fair neither to any of the Diaspora supporters of the movement nor to the movement itself to associate it with any political, academic or religious figure based just on one’s pro-struggle positions. This is a movement that had been led by its elected leaders for some time, and then, upon their incarceration, by those who got endorsement to lead both by the incarcerated leaders and the Muslim activists at large.

I, therefore, urge all bodies that have been raising immense dust on the question of Jawar to primarily distance their comments from the Muslim movement. It is quite natural and perfectly healthy to discuss Jawar’s politics, and support or destroy it. But it is not healthy to bring that discussion into the Muslim movement and try to derail a magnificently unifying anti-EPRDF force. It is also not fair to expect or require Muslim activists to take sides on political issues in connection with the battle they are waging in Ethiopia. It is, finally, better for all of us, I humbly submit, to temper our inter-group bickering and step up the anti-EPRDF struggle for freedom and justice instead.