Preying and Praying: A Day and Night with the EPRDF

By Faysal Qassim

It is
striking to note that the live broadcast took place by the end of that same day
when the government went crazy with its killing spree and massive arrests. According
to many credible sources, the government had by then killed at least 11 people
in Oromia region of Ethiopia, and arrested thousands
for no apparent reason other than their assertiveness in demanding their
constitutional rights. The aim of the uncanny night-time transmission is thus obvious:
neutralizing the fast developing anti-Islam and anti-Muslim image of the ruling
party in the eyes of its Muslim citizens.

This
attempt at revamping public image is both bizarre and shocking. How would any
government truly believe in the efficacy of an arbitrary, ephemeral and
cosmetic measure as a panacea to the awful damage it perpetrated on its people?
The government’s reasoning is not just quite amazing, however, but also
utterly shocking. It lays bare the deeply condescending attitude of the EPRDF
towards its Muslims citizens. If it really expected such a TV transmission
would amount to anything positive politically, then it would be one more clear
proof that the core of the party is infested with a chronic illness of toxic contempt
for people.

But it is
shocking also because the transmission was meant for those same people who have
recently demonstrated, as a people, perhaps the highest level of political maturity
and determination in current Ethiopia. Ethiopian Muslims have been protesting
government policies for about a year and a half—having managed to escape
the worst through their skillful and novel mechanisms of resistance. Their
struggle has been an exemplary case of non-violent struggle against state
tyranny, demonstrating utmost far-sightedness and fortitude. To expect such a daring
and mature group of people to yield into so petty a propaganda work as the
government is indulged in at present would manifest nothing but the paramount
idiocy that the Ethiopian regime suffers from as it stands now.

Rather
expectedly, the production of Muslim preys by EPRDF gangs could not be atoned
by the TV transmission of Muslim prayers. As it is being exhibited widely on
diverse fora, Ethiopian Muslims are actually more
infuriated by the dirty works of the government, and are betraying even stronger
determination to stage more protests in the near future. But more immediately, during
that same holy night of Ramadan (the 27^th) and in the ones that
followed, very emotional supplications were being heard in different mosques
across Addis Ababa, cursing the EPRDF regime and imploring Allah to bring down
justice in the country. When people are preyed upon by tyrants, prayers do not
serve the oppressive agenda of the oppressors, but the noble cause of the
oppressed.