Let us not add up on our problems, Let us be part of the solution

By Haj Mohammed (Toronto, Canada)
July 11, 2004

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Mr. Sebhatu’s article titled The emergence of radical Islam in Ethiopia, which I have read in Ethiomedia web site, is a slanderous attack on Ethiopian Unity and Ethiopian Muslims. I am surprised that such irresponsible article has got posted in such a prominent site, when it is a matter that has no positive impact on the welfare of Ethiopians and survival of our country – Ethiopia.

His analysis is simply based on sheer hatred and envy of the current relatively favorable atmosphere of Ethiopian Muslims to exercise their faith and having been able to build their worship places in their own country, a right they have been denied in the past regimes of Ethiopia.

What saddened me most is that Mr. Sebhatu was not only concerned about the mosques that were built, but he also questioned Muslim’s role in the economy and the growing number of Muslim students.
He also twisted the birth rate in the Muslim community as a hidden agenda and a deliberate act to outnumber the Christian population. In fact, he has never mentioned any statistical data to support his argument in any of the points he has raised through out his article.

I believe it is the value of Muslims & Christian Ethiopian’s to establish a traditional family that consists of as many children as the almighty God may give them. There is nothing a Muslim family did more than having this traditional family value; therefore, Mr. Sebhatu’s claim is a reckless act that arose out of his own hidden political agenda to misinform and disunite our people, who have been living in harmony for a long time.

He blames the government for dividing people based on their ethnicity, while he destroys our unity by calling Christians as defenders of the father land and Muslims as traitors. Come on! Mr. Sebhatu, One can sight the recent Ethio-Eritrean war to prove how we stand together for the flag of our beloved nation. I smell something here, when I think of who you could be based on your ideas. I believe you are the one who have a hidden agenda, not the Ethiopian Muslims.
The other point he mentioned is about the over representation of Muslims in the nations business. That may be true but has its cause.

Ethiopian Muslims have a long time experience in the business world. This is not by coincidence, the fact is that they had no land to cultivate, unless they lease from the noble Christian person. This was absolutely true in the Amhara region, especially in Gondar and Gojam provinces. In other parts of the country, they were discouraged by the bureaucracy or the feudal lords. Not only that they had no chance to assume administrational position in the state apparatus or in the military. Hence, business was the only open field that they could have worked to move on, when feudalism call it “Michagna Neckash,” a kind work left for those “ who are not born to govern”. Now it becomes a prestigious work which Mr. Sebhatu just found out to be envious of.

I believe Mr. Sebhatu has never thought of about doing business (merchandize) up until he finished his post secondary education. He was only dreaming to be an administrator of Wukro, Wolkite. The current business booming in the Muslims community is therefore the result of the legacy of the past not a fortune that just emerged. Most of all, one can mention the role of Mr. Al- Amudi’s contribution in the current economy and his exemplary role in supporting Ethiopian athletes, artists as well as the job opportunity he crated for everyone. If this is the source of Mr. Sebhatu’s headache, let the Ethiopian people voted whether they are happy or not with Mr. Alamudi’s job in the nation.

Mr. Sbhatu has also a wrong statistics about the demographic composition of Ethiopian population. I kindly ask him to check the government site or as Mr. Aman mentioned it, read the recent CIA or Previous US ambassador in Ethiopia report about the percentage of Ethiopian Muslims in the country.

My fear is not only Mr. Sbhatu’s individual feeling or his single article, but his view represents the attitude of many intellectuals who still think like their forefathers that our country is a “Christian Island”. These unjust, unfair and undemocratic elites of my country are the major obstructions to our unity as well as peace and stability of Ethiopia.
I am also dispirited by their blasphemy and false accusation of fellow Muslims of being radicals and fanatics, because they built mosques in their native land and worship their creator as their Christian fellow brothers and sisters do in their churches.
I was born in Gondar, a city that has forty-four churches, may be even more this time and only two mosques, when Muslims represent more than one-third of the population. Would it be a surprising today if they built ten more mosques to meet their needs of worship place in their different locations? Or would my parents be considered to be radicals this time, because permit is less difficult to get today and they built a mosque closer to their residence than going all the way to Kdame-Gebeya?

Thanks God! I am from the city of Gondar. At least, my parents have a place of worship. What about the Aksum resident Muslims who have no right to build one even at this time? I wouldn’t be surprise if Mr.Sebhatu has grown up in such dominating environment and has got everything wrong about our country and its peoples’ relation.

Let we be fair, my friends. We have a lot of other problems to be tackled in order to build a prosperous, united and stable Ethiopia. There is no need to add up on the problems any more, rather let us be part of the solutions.

Mr. Sebhatu’s view has emanated from the country’s past/present education system and unfair political power distribution. It shows how much the Ethiopian intelligentsia has been affected by the nostalgia of the past and failed to understand the new reality. If that isn’t the case, the respond for such irresponsible article wouldn’t be only by Muslim Ethiopians. It has supposed to be everyone’s duty to challenge such an imprudent view.

Our future education system must be designed to cater the value of equality, diversity and plurality to our growing children so that they can live respectfully as one nation and one people.

The new reality is that Ethiopia is not only for Christians, Amhara’s, Tigrians or feudal class. It is for its entire people regardless of their ethnicity, faith or origin. Mr. Sebhatu and his elk’s failure to understand these phenomena will destabilize our country and prolong the suffering of our people.
If we all want our beloved country to have peace and tranquility we need to refrain from writing Mr. Sebhatu’s kind of poisonous and divisive propaganda that has no substance and has no positive impact on the welfare of our people and the survival of our country- Ethiopia.

Selam le hagere, lewdua Ethiopia!
Haj Mohamed
Toronto, Canada