Ahlu Sunna Wa L-Jama’ a in Somalia

Abstract

Early May 2012 Muslim riots erupted in several Ethiopian cities, which were harshly repressed by the government. To make its point understood by all, the authorities also announced the arrest of two "Arabs" who allegedly were involved in terrorist activities. Ethiopian Muslim leaders were unconvinced, to say the least, and accused the regime for using this divert attention from the appointment of al-Ahbash people into the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (EIASC) (see Dereje Feyissa’s chapter and Østebø‘s postscript in this volume). This incident was not the first one and refers to what can be fairly described as a genuine policy framed by the ruling coalition since it came to power in 1991: repressing all kinds of Wahhabi proselytism for the sake of keeping the Christian-Muslim relations under full control and avoiding Islamic grievances against secularism as defined by the state. In order to achieve this, it needed to control the main Islamic institutions and mobilize Sufi movements against all those, Ethiopian and foreign, who intended to promote a more assertive role of Islam in the polity and question the alleged fairness of the regime in dealing with Islam.