Even Ethiopia clashes between Christians and Muslims
Uncertain the death toll, buildings and Christian places of worship burned
Paul De Maeyer
ROME, Friday, March 11, 2011 (ZENIT.org) .- Although Ethiopia are reports of a wave of inter-religious violence. As reported the site Compass Direct News (CDN, March 7), the epicenter of heavy fighting between Muslims and Christians is the central-western city of Asendabo near Jimma (or Jimma, the capital of the former province of Kaffa), the largest and populous region of the country in the Horn of Africa, Oromia (or Oromya).
A very provisional budget says at least two Christians killed. This was confirmed in Voice of America (March 8), the Ethiopian government spokesman, Kemal Shimelis. One of the victims would be a believer of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (which calls itself "Tewahedo" or miafisita), whose daughter belongs to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (Lutheran tradition). "It is difficult to make predictions in terms of deaths, because we do not have access to any place," a source told Compass . The material damage is very heavy: dozens of buildings and places of Christian worship, including even some Bible schools, and homes were torched. The violence has also caused thousands of displaced people.
While more than half of Ethiopia's population is Christian (the last census, in 2007, 44% of the population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and 19% to various evangelical and Pentecostal denominations), the Asendabo Jimma zone and is predominantly Muslim and has long been the scene of rivalry between the two communities. According to a source of Compass , attacks against churches are now on the agenda in the Muslim-majority areas of Ethiopia, as is the Gimma or Giggig (Or Jijiga), the Somali region in the east, where the rule of Islamic law or sharia.
The spark that blew up last March 2 the wave of violence was a news - unconfirmed - of an alleged desecration of the Koran. A Christian would have ripped a copy of the holy book of Islam.
According to information gathered by Compass , after the first clashes with Asendabo violence has spread like wildfire to other centers in the area, as Chiltie, Gilgel Gibe, Busa and Koticha. Thousands of Muslims have attacked dozens of Christian targets. Of the 59 places of worship destroyed and fire from the crowds, less than 38 belong to the Ethiopian Kale Hiwot Church (EKHC, the equivalent of the Ethiopian Baptist Church), 12 to 6 Mekane Yesus and the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
According to reports from Compass , some evangelical leaders have reported the incidents to the authorities so far have done nothing to stem the tide, which could reach Gimma, with its approximately 160,000 inhabitants is the largest center urban western Ethiopia. According to some witnesses, the police were not reached, despite requests for protection by the Christian community.
Inaction or failure by the Ethiopian government to stop the violence has been strongly criticized by the organization International Christian Concern (ICC). "The Ethiopian government officials have a responsibility to protect their citizens from attacks. It is a scandal and a breach of their obligation specified in international law of human rights that the government let the Muslims kill Christians and destroy their property," said Jonathan Racho, Regional Manager for Africa, ICC (March 4).
to dismiss the indictment was the spokesman for the central government in Addis Ababa, Shimelis, which always Voice of America has announced the arrest of 130 "extremists" suspected of inciting religious hatred and violence.
The new wave of sectarian violence coincides with the serious fighting going on at the border between Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, where the forces of Somalia's weak transitional government try to hunt with the active support of the Ethiopian army militants of Al-Shabaab Islamist movement from the city of Bulahawo, near the Kenyan town of Mandera. The head of the notorious extremist militia, supported by Iran, Shaykh Omar Mahad Abdikarim, moreover, launched last week an appeal to Muslims "oppressed" in Kenya and Ethiopia to rise up against their respective governments and to "liberate" by Christian rule ( Africa Review, March 4).
Islamic fundamentalism is indeed growing in Ethiopia. On 18 November, a Christian from Moyale (city of the Oromia region, on the border with Kenya) - Tamirat Woldegorgis, a member of the Full Gospel Church - was sentenced to a term of three years in prison for desecrating the Koran and was transferred to a prison in Giggig. A Muslim colleague had accused the man, who by trade was a tailor and was arrested in August, he had written "Jesus is Lord" on a piece of cloth and a copy of the Koran, accusations never proven, moreover, by facts, as pointed out Compass Direct News (November 29, 2010).
were also sentenced to pay a fine of two friends also Woldegorgis for supporting a criminal who had desecrated the Koran and insulting Islam. Their fault: they had visited the hapless tailor in prison and had caused him some food.
Giggig Again he was arrested by police and jailed 23 May 2009, a famous convert from Islam to Christianity, Bashir Musa Ahmed, because in possession of eight copies of the Bible. Although freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution of Ethiopia and it was an edition of the Bible widespread in the country's Somali region, the charge made against Ahmed was the distribution of religious literature with intent "malicious" (CDN, February 18, 2010).
activity or zeal of evangelical preachers seem to annoy not only the Muslim community but also the local Orthodox Church. On 27 January 2010, two buildings belonging respectively to the Brethren Church and Mekane Yesus Church were attacked by groups of Orthodox Christians in the town of Olenkomi, about 65 km west of the capital Addis Ababa, also in the Oromia region (Canada, April 15 2010). A visiting preacher in the attack in the town, Abera Ongeremu was seriously injured. The origin of the double attack had been a fire of an accidental nature that had destroyed an Orthodox church. Disliked in the area in predominantly Orthodox is the fact that many secondary school teachers are Olenkomi of evangelical faith.
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