Ethiopia: The Unfair Trial of Muslim Leaders

August 14, 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.

The government’s response to the movement, however, was inhumane and disproportionate to say the least. It rounded up the most prominent protest leaders, tortured them, attempted to shame and defame them on national television, and now convicted them of terrorism.