Social Issues – Gondaronline.com

Marginalization of the Amharic speaking majority in cities across the Oromia region of Ethiopia

“One of the most important reasons for the protests across the cities in Oromia regional state – reclamation of linguistic rights – is cunningly ignored by the regional as well as the federal government of Ethiopia.”

Nazreth (Adama)

Alemu’s grandfather was born in Nazreth. Alemu’s close friend—Tenkir—and over 60% of the natives, and current residents of the city of Nazreth aren’t ethnic Oromo, according to Census 2007 by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA). Ever since the government of the Oromia regional state passed a draconian law in 1991, Oromiffa has been subjected as the only official language of the administration of the city of Nazreth where Amharic is spoken as a first language by 59.25%, 26.25% speak Oromiffa and 6.28% speak Guragiegna; the remaining 8.22% speak all other primary languages reported, according to Census 2007. Furthermore, the majority of the inhabitants said they practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 63.62% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 24.7% of the population were Muslim, and 10.57% were Protestant , according to Census 2007. Following the introduction of the draconian law in 1991, most public sector workers who demographically co-relataed with the normal population of the city were removed from their job immediately. The entire public services of Nazreth — health, education, judiciary and etc — was enforced to be in Oromiffa while the sweeping majority —over 90% of the population— had Amharic as the most common means of communication.

Figure 1. Languages of Nazreth(Adama), according to census 2007

“It’s very cruel and unfair that Amharic was written off from being an official and working language in Nazreth when it’s reported as the most spoken— and written — language by far at 59.25%, twice more than Oromiffa which is at 26.25%, ” said Ahmed, a Gurage business man in the city of Nazreth.

“My sons and daughters can’t work in the city administration. Nor can run for the city council. We are considered inexistent. Our basic human rights in the city we built was stripped overnight since 1991. The name of our city —Nazreth—was changed in to Adama without our majority consent,” continued Ahmed.

Kiros, a business owner who was born in the city of Nazreth says: “The rights of the non-Oromo ethnicity is suppressed by the Oromo who constitute only 26.25% of the languages spoken — and who have a statically insignificant language representation as compared to the Amharic speaking, which is 59,25%.

“Having taken the city council draconically, the Oromo regional government has prevented more Churches from being built while a number of Mosques were erected in the last two decades,” continued Kiros

According to subsequent censuses carried out befor 2007, the percentage of residents in Nazareth speaking Amharic as their first language was even more higher. As a result, systematic displacement tactics and autocratic laws implemented by the Oromo regional government (OPDO), is to blame for the slight decrement since 1991.

Kidest , a young engineer who doesn’t know any other world than Nazreth, said : “we are still the majority despite living through a draconian enforcement of laws aimed at chasing us away. And, the Federal government must look in to the case of Nazareth where the majority is suffering from a crazy suppression of linguistic rights”

Figure 2. Languages of Debreziet, according to census 2007

Amhara and Debub actvists accuse Oromia broadcasting Network(OBN) of being reticent about the demands of protestors— Linguistic rights of the non-Oromo majorities —in the restive cities across the Oromia regional state of Ethiopia.

Ayenachew , a resident in the town of Nazreth, said : “OPDO isn’t counting us at all. It is masking our issues by hyping irrelevant issues that are of a subject of interest and right only to the residents of the chartered city of Addis.”

According to the constitution of Ethiopia, regional states are only legally administrative frameworks, and that the entire country of Ethiopia belongs to Ethiopians equally regardless of race, religion, language, sex, disability and etc.

One of the reason as to why relentless protests engulfed cities across the Oromia regional states, according to the majority of protestors who are non-oromos as far as demographics is concerend, is : “Severe violation of rights of administering our city ”

The same story of severe human rights violations are pertinent in different cities across the Oromia regional states where the Amharic speaking people and non-Oromos are predominant.

Debreziet (Bishoftu) Demographics

Amharic is spoken as a first language by 71.95%, and 20.12% spoke Oromiffa; the remaining 7.93% spoke all other primary languages reported. Concerning religious beliefs, 87.87% of the population said they practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, 6.93% were Protestants, and 4.02% observed Roman Catholicism, according to census 1994. The name of the city — “Debreziet”— was changed to “Bishoftu” without a full consent of the residents of the city.

Jimma Demographics

Amharic is spoken as a first language by 41.58% and 39.96% speak Afan Oromo; the remaining 18.46% speak all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants said they practiced Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, with 46.84% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 39.03% of the population were Muslim, and 13.06% were Protestant, according to Census 2007

Figure 3. Languages of Jima, according to census 2007

Legal synthesis :

Linguistic rights are the human and civil rights concerning the individual and collective right to choose the language or languages for communication in a private or public atmosphere. Other parameters for analyzing linguistic rights include the degree of territoriality, amount of positivity, orientation in terms of assimilation or maintenance, and overtness, according to wikipedia 2017.

The majority of the residents in cities across the Oromia regional states —who are non- ethnic Oromo and have Amharic as their first , or the most convenient language, are deprived of their linguistic rights which includes, among others, the right to one’s own language in legal, administrative , judicial acts, language education, and media in a language understood and freely chosen by those concerned.

Linguistic rights in international law are usually dealt in the broader framework of cultural and educational rights.

Important documents for linguistic rights include the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights(1996), the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities(1988), as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).

UN, EU, US and ICC don’t need to send investigators to check if there’s any sever violation of human rights— ‘Linguistic rights’ —in the Oromia regional state of Ethiopia as they have enough data which can serve as an evidence to prosecute or sanction the government.

One thing is clear that the current leadership of the Oromia regional state —OPDO— has failed in its ongoing period of prohibition. Despite branding itself as ‘quite independent and pro-democratic’ , OPDO failed to deliver not only on issues that matter most to the majority of the residents/protestors in Debereziet, Nazreth, Jimma and etc , but also proved that it can systematically suppress , abstract, divert and use the voices of the majority who are relentlessly demonstrating in cities where ‘ reclamation of Linguistic rights’ are being echoed discriminately.

Mikael Arage is a techprenuer, manager, engineer, strategist, citizen journalist, life long interdisciplinary student and human rights activist based in Helsinki, Finland. He regularly covers on political economy, technology, innovation and business development in Ethiopia.

Orthodox Christians and 21st Century Arguments

By Jeff Diamant Pew Research

Key takeaways about Orthodox Christians

BY JEFF DIAMANT

A woman lights a prayer candle at an Orthodox church in Moscow. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Orthodoxy is the third-largest branch of Christianity, after Catholicism and Protestantism. Today, there are approximately 260 million Orthodox Christians in the world, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

Orthodoxy, or Eastern Christianity, formally split from Roman Catholicism (known then as Western Christianity) in 1054 over a host of theological issues, high among them disputes over papal authority.

Here are key takeaways about Orthodox Christians, based on the report:

1Orthodox Christians have decreased as a share of the overall Christian population even as their numbers have more than doubled since 1910, when there were 125 million of them. This decrease in share is due to the fact that the worldwide populations of Catholics, Protestants and other Christians have collectively almost quadrupled over the last century (from 490 million in 1910 to 1.9 billion in 2010). Roughly one-in-eight Christians (12%) are now Orthodox, down from one-in-five (20%) in 1910.

2More than three-quarters (77%) of Orthodox Christians around the world live in Europe, although there is a considerable Orthodox population in Ethiopia (36 million). This is in marked contrast to the geographical distribution of Catholics and Protestants, just 24% and 12% of whom live in Europe, respectively. A majority of Catholics and Protestants now live in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa or the Asia-Pacific region. In 1910, roughly half or more of Christians in all three traditions lived in Europe.

3Most Orthodox Christians live in countries that were behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet era and, by several standard measures, they exhibit relatively low levels of religiosity. This is especially true for Orthodox Christians living in former Soviet republics. In Russia, which has the world’s largest Orthodox population (101 million), just 6% of Orthodox Christians say they attend church at least once a week, 15% say religion is “very important” in their lives and 18% say they pray daily. Bucking this trend, again, is Ethiopia, where 78% of Orthodox Christians say they attend religious services at least weekly, 98% say religion is “very important” in their lives and 65% say they pray daily.

4The vast majority of Orthodox Christians around the world say homosexuality should not be accepted by society. In nearly every country surveyed, with the exception of Greece and the United States, Orthodox majorities feel this way. These views are particularly strong among Orthodox populations in former Soviet republics. Orthodox majorities in the countries surveyed also oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, although the U.S. is an exception to this pattern.

5Few Orthodox Christians say they want to be reunited with the Roman Catholic Church. The view that Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism should reconcile is a minority position in every Orthodox population surveyed across Central and Eastern Europe, except Romania. At the same time, many Orthodox Christians declined to answer this question, perhaps reflecting ambivalence about the topic. Catholics in the region are about as likely as Orthodox Christians to favor their two churches being in communion again (medians of 38% and 35%, respectively). Still, Orthodox and Catholic majorities in most countries surveyed say the two religious traditions have “a lot in common” with each other.

6Orthodox Christians broadly support their church’s prohibition on women’s ordination to the priesthood. More Orthodox Christians favor this church stance than oppose it in most countries surveyed. For instance, in Ethiopia, 89% of Orthodox Christians support the prohibition on women’s ordination and just 7% oppose it. And in Romania, 74% of Orthodox Christians favor the church position and 22% oppose it. Orthodox women tend to be as likely as Orthodox men to be against the ordination of women.

Correction: The chart “Relatively low shares of Orthodox and Catholics favor Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism being in communion” has been updated to correct the share of Catholics in Bosnia saying the two churches should be in commun

WHY THERE’S A STATUE OF BOB MARLEY IN ETHIOPIA?

Fun fact: the Rasta movement arose in Ethiopia, not Jamaica.

By Bill Wiatrak |Houstoniamag

WHEN YOU THINK OF JAMAICA, you’re likely to conjure a mental picture of Bob Marley before you think of anything else. There’s no other country in the world where one musician seems to represent the embodiment of an entire culture like Marley is to Jamaica. The dreadlocks and the red/green/yellow color scheme seems sooooo Jamaican. But is it?

The answer might surprise you: Look no further than the Ethiopian flag. Does it look familiar? That’s because the Rasta movement arose in Ethiopia, not Jamaica.

Ethiopia is the only African country never colonized by Europeans. Countries like Kenya and Egypt were controlled by the British; the Belgians took the Congo; and much of North Africa was seized by the French. Every European country seemed to want a piece of the “dark continent,” but Ethiopia always avoided colonization—including two failed attempts by the Italians in 1895 and later in 1935.

During the latter attempt, a prominent figure emerged: a king who claimed to be from the lineage of Queen Sheba and King Solomon. His name was Haile Selassie, who became revered far beyond his country as “The Lion of Judah.”

Haile had other names, too, partly because of the different languages he spoke (including French and the native Amharic and Ge’ez languages of Ethiopia). Tafari was his given name at birth, meaning “one who is respected or feared.” Later, as governor of the walled city of Harer, he was given the ranking title of Ras, or “prince.” If you haven’t already figured it out, Haile Selassie was also known as Ras Tafari. Sound familiar?

A few years prior, in the 1920s, a popular Jamaican political leader named Marcus Garvey predicted that one day a black man would be crowned king in Africa. This king would be a divine being that would bring deliverance to the people of Africa and the rest of the world. In 1930, when Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia following a coup d’etat, this prophecy appeared to be coming true.

To the poor Jamaican population, Tafari was more than just an Ethiopian king. He appeared to them to be the chosen one. Jamaicans, like many other former slaves, had been robbed of their culture and sense of belonging. The idea of going back to Africa and redefining and reasserting their native roots was very appealing. The home continent of Africa became known as “Zion” by the Jamaicans, while the white man’s world was called “Babylon.”

The people who idolized Tafari embraced many of the Ethiopian traditions: An Ethiopian vegan lifestyle without alcohol or salt was adopted; the colors of the Ethiopian flag were embraced; dreadlocks became a symbol of a lion’s mane as well as the idea of roots connecting man to God. Long hair is also strongly associated with the biblical story of Sampson and other Old Testament scripture. The Jamaicans accepted many traditional biblical teachings but felt like white men had altered the sacred text to make African slaves more subservient to their masters.

Selassie explained to his followers that he was not the Messiah. In spite of his protests, many were certain that was the chosen one. The new cult took Tafari’s name: They became the Ras Tafarians.

This small cult never really gained worldwide acceptance until Robert Marley popularized it. Born Catholic, Marley converted in the 1960s, grew his dreadlocks and began writing songs with spiritual elements. When asked about his religious beliefs, the singer once mentioned, “I would say to the people, Be still, and know that His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the Almighty…. I don’t see how much more reveal our people want. Wha’ dem want? A white God, well God come black. True true.” Many of Bob Marley’s songs are about reuniting Africa and deal with other Rastafarian beliefs. Many casual listeners don’t really listen to the words, the reggae melodies instead invoking thoughts of tropical vacations and beaches.

In 1966, Selassie visited Jamaica to an ecstatic crowd of thousands. He appropriated 500 acres of land of his country to Jamaicans or other people of African descent who wished to move to Ethiopia. Bob Marley visited Ethiopia in 1978 and stayed in Shashamane, the village formed by those who had taken Selassie’s offer. It was thought that a large percentage of the one million adherents might move to “Zion,” but that never really happened. Fifty-plus years later, roughly 800 Rastafarians live in the town. For all the songs about moving back to Africa, hardly anyone actually did it—including Marley himself. Shashamane remains an eccentric little enclave in Ethiopia peopled by Rasta followers. Ganja, ironically enough, is illegal in Ethiopia, though it’s tolerated in that community to a certain extent.

Bob Marley died in 1981 of skin cancer that began on one of his toes. He refused to treat it because of his religious beliefs. Like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and James Dean, Marley has become more of a brand than the person he really was. He symbolizes Caribbean music, smoking weed, and the red, green and yellow colors of the Ethiopian flag.

In 2015, a statue of Marley was installed in Addis Ababa for Bob’s 70th birthday celebration. In 2005, Rita Marley, Bob Marley’s widow announced she would be moving his body to be reburied in Ethiopia, though that never happened; the famous singer still rests in tomb in his home in Nine Mile, Jamaica. Marley’s music, meanwhile, continues to inspire the world from the Americas to Africa—even if many folks are only listening to the melodies.

Africa, Unite
’Cause we’re moving right out of Babylon
And we’re going to our father’s land

How good and how pleasant it would be
Before God and man, yeah
To see the unification of all Africans, yeah
As it’s been said already let it be done, yeah
We are the children of the Rastaman
We are the children of the Higher Man

How long can Ethiopia state of emergency last?

Aljazeera

A decade of development in Ethiopia, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, is at risk if the country continues to ban political opposition and muzzle the media, the UN has warned.

Ethiopia is now in its eighth month of emergency rule, which was imposed in October last year to crush its biggest protests in 25 years.

The unrest started in the Oromia region in 2015, when the largest ethnic group, the Oromo, hit the streets demanding more rights.

Demonstrations then spread to the Amhara region, home to the second major ethnic group.

The state of emergency, initially declared for six months, included curfews, social media blocks, and restrictions on opposition party activity. It was extended for another four months in March amid reports of continuing violence.

Almost 700 people have been killed in the violence, a government sponsored commission said in April, but human rights groups said the toll could be higher.

Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has urged authorities to allow UN officials to visit the affected region and establish the facts. He has expressed concern over reports of the arrest of more than 26,000 people.

Negeri Lencho, Ethiopia’s information minister, talks to Al Jazeera on the prospects for peace in his country.

Al Jazeera: How does Ethiopia as a country, as a government respond to allegations of human rights abuses?

Negeri Lencho: Thank you. In the first place, Ethiopian government is an accountable government. Ethiopia is in the process of building democracy in the last two decades.

In that process, not only building democracy, but also working to elevate the problem of poverty and escape the majority of the people out of poverty.

And as you’ve also noted, Ethiopia was in dire poverty 25 years before, but now it is one of the fastest growing economy.

Ethiopia rejects UN’s call to investigate protest deaths

Al Jazeera: And yet you’ve run a state of emergency first for six months and another four. That’s going to stifle growth, isn’t it?

Lencho: I understand that. Actually the economic growth we have achieved was made possible because of peace and stability, we know that.

The number one enemy of the people of Ethiopia is poverty, and we can get rid of poverty where there’s peace and stability.

And what we’ve experienced was compromising the efforts we’ve been making so far. The government was trying to respond to the demands that the people already expressed.

As a young democratic country, we believe that any problem, whatever the case may be, can be resolved through peaceful forum.

Al Jazeera: Dialogue. Is there dialogue happening? You talk about poverty being the enemy. But those two ethnic groups, they want to be recognised. They want their rights as ethnic people of Ethiopia to be recognised. Are you talking to them? Are you listening to them?

Lencho: Yeah. Actually the government is the government of these people as well. Because the government or people in government positions have not come from elsewhere, but from the people as well.

And they raise questions about the equitable use of economic benefits and employment and so on. But the problem was not the question that the public raised.

The government was responding to the question, to its level. But unfortunately what propelled the government to impose a state of emergency was the demonstrations you know took a different direction than the public intended. Not only the government.

It was compromising peace and order, the stability, which doesn’t help any of the people who have the question.

Al Jazeera: Are you going to let the United Nations in? The United Nations High Commissioner wants access to people who have been arrested. There’s limits on the media as well. These things are not helping the country or its image.

Lencho: Actually it is the responsibility of the Ethiopian government because it is a democratic country, it is accountable to its people and what the government said was the government can’t do it. That means there is an independent human rights commission …

Al Jazeera: Which praised the government for the way it handled things.

Lencho: It did not praise if you really read the report. It came out with a report that seeks the offenders to be accountable at the same time, not only praising the government.

Actually the report shows that in some places the action taken was to restore peace and order, and was appropriate because of the way the direction took that was against the interests of the civilians as well.

Al Jazeera: So when can the Ethiopian people look to have their freedom restored? When will the state of emergency be lifted?

Lencho: Well, actually, the state of emergency in Ethiopia is not unique. When such problems arises elsewhere in different parts of the world.

We have even eased many of the provisions in the state of emergency and we have seen protests in the country.

It has been extended only for four months, and now one month has almost passed. After we expect it will be lifted you know when these three months end.

Ge’ez and Early Islam

By NANCY JOSEPH

PERSPECTIVES NEWSLETTER

It’s an important language for the study of late ancient Christianity and early Islam. It’s the language of some of the earliest Judeo-Christian writings. Its vocabulary can be found throughout the Quran. Yet the classical language Ge’ez is little known beyond the Horn of Africa and taught at just two universities in the Western world. Make that three — the University of Washington offered Ge’ez 101 for the first time this spring.

Hamza Zafer, assistant professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, expected a handful of students to sign up when he offered this obscure classical language. Instead the class filled to capacity, with 30 students enrolled within days and more on the waiting list. Four graduate students with a scholarly interest in Ge’ez signed up, but the rest had more personal reasons for enrolling. “Most of the students are children of immigrants from the Horn of Africa — Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea,” says Zafer. “Many of them grew up in Seattle exposed to Ge’ez in their communities, since Ge’ez is a living liturgical language in the Ethiopian and Eritrean orthodox churches, much like Latin was the liturgical language in Roman Catholic churches.”

Those students include bioengineering major Jerusalem Kifelew, who grew up hearing Ge’ez in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and business pre-major Fethawit Musye, who heard it in the Eritrean Orthodox Church. “When my friends and I heard Ge’ez was being offered as a class at UW, we were really excited because we actually had a chance to learn more about the language we grew up hearing,” says Musye.

Hamza Zafer with Ge'ez 101 students — Hamza Zafer with students in Ge’ez 101. MEDIA CREDIT: MAX WEINSTEIN-BACAL

Unlike his students, Zafer had no contact with Ge’ez early on. As a specialist in early Islamic history and thought, Zafer was formally trained in many late ancient literary languages — Syriac, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic — but not Ge’ez, despite its significance and centrality. “It’s a very important language,” he says, “but as a classical African language it has been largely ignored by the Western academy, which privileges the classical languages of Europe and Western Asia.” Zafer taught himself Ge’ez while doing his doctorate, using old grammar texts from Germany. “I learn languages, dead and alive, like a treat for my brain,” he laughs. “I know over two dozen languages this way. Ge’ez started out as a linguistic treat, but now it informs my research on early Islam and has become a much deeper intellectual interest.”

Ge’ez dates back to at least the second century and belongs to the only part of Africa that was never colonized by a European power, a fact that Zafer points out in class. He also emphasizes the language’s formative impact on Christianity and Islam. “The field of early Islamic studies has always been oriented towards Europe and Western Asia, which are seen as the cradle of Jewish and Christian thought,” says Zafer. “Africa is never seen as part of the equation. But east African Judaism and Christianity had just as much, if not more, of a formative impact on early Islam. The fact that a lot of Christological vocabulary in the Quran is in Ge’ez tells us that the Christianity that the earliest Muslims encountered was an African Christianity.”

It’s a very important language, but as a classical African language it has been largely ignored by the Western academy….

Learning about the historical role of Ge’ez has been an eye-opener for many students. Kifelew says that understanding the language’s historical importance has made her even more engaged with Ge’ez. She’s also intrigued by its longevity. “The language has remained unchanged and in its original form,” says Kifelew. “It’s so common to see languages change over time due to different influences, and it’s very interesting to see how and why Ge’ez has stayed constant.”

Students in Ge'ez 101 — Many students in Ge’ez 101 have been exposed to the language in Ethiopian and Eritrean orthodox churches in Seattle.MEDIA CREDIT: MAX WEINSTEIN-BACAL

Beyond what they learn in class, the students also benefit from the rare opportunity to be surrounded by classmates with a similar background. “Every day they come into class giddy,” says Zafer. “This is probably the only time these American students will be in a classroom where most of their classmates share their African ancestry. They are one of many, rather than the exception. As a person of color myself, I realize how empowering such spaces and experiences can be, especially in the current climate.”

Musye and Kifelew have certainly found that to be true. “This is the first class I’ve taken at the UW where I feel completely understood by my peers,” says Kifelew. Adds Musye, “Being in this class with students who not only look like me but also come from a similar background has been enlightening, because we’re able to make connections to our culture.”

Zafer is pleased that his department chair recognizes Ge’ez’s significance — both to historians and many Washingtonians — and helped get the course on the books. He believes that the language has been overlooked in academia for far too long.

“There has been an implicit hierarchy of what corpuses of writing or languages or intellectual traditions are important in the humanities,” says Zafer. “Part of offering this class is to upend that, to point out that these hierarchies are embedded in a particularly Eurasia-centric understanding of high Classical learning. The class serves as a reminder that the West includes communities that have different hierarchies of knowledge and different visions of history.”

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

The disciplining of a professor raises an old philosophical question

The conundrum of whether Christians and Muslims revere the same God

By Erasmus, Economist

EVERY so often a question that seems purely abstract and philosophical passes into the realm of hard reality where people’s lives and destinies are determined. One such conundrum is whether or not Christians and Muslims can be said to worship the same God.

For nearly a decade, the question has preoccupied judges, politicians and ordinary folk in Malaysia, a country where Islam is the most widely-followed faith but large minorities follow other faiths, including Christianity. In 2007, a court ruled that non-Muslims (and Christians in particular) could not use the word “Allah” although that happens to be the Malay or Bahasa word for God. The Islamic authorities reasoned that Muslims might be confused, and tempted to go astray, if they came across people of other persuasions addressing a deity which only Muslims fully understood. In the course of many legal battles, this view has prevailed; Christian printed matter using the word “Allah” has often been impounded as a result.

In 1965, the Roman Catholic church approached the question in a very different spirit, in its landmark treatise, Nostra Aetate. A key passage states:

The Church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself, merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly even to His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God.

But when Larycia Hawkins, an African-American assistant professor at Wheaton College, an evangelical campus near Chicago, voiced similar views last month, she created a firestorm. She was suspended from teaching, and procedures which could lead to her dismissal were initiated. It all started with a Facebook posting in which she declared her intention, as an act of friendship with stigmatised Muslims, to wear a hijab to work in the run-up to Christmas, and added: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. As Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”

When challenged by the college authorities about what she believed, she replied with a statement of stricter theological orthodoxy than many a liberal or “mainline” Protestant cleric would be able to make: “I believe in one sovereign God, eternally existing in three Persons: the everlasting Father, his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Holy Spirit, the giver of life…” On the commonality between the two monotheisms, she had something more enigmatic to say. After citing various Catholic and Protestant sources, including Nostra Aetate, she added:

Like them I acknowledge that the statement “we worship the same God” is a simultaneous “yes” and “no” to the question of whether Christians and Muslims (as well as Jews) turn to the same object of worship…

Yes and No? That’s where philosophy may be able to help. In 1905, the great British philosopher Bertrand Russell started a century of discussion by penning a famous essay showing how an apparently simple statement can in fact be asserting many things at once. Specifically, to say, “the king of France is bald” is to imply both that i) there is a king of France, and only one of them and ii) that sovereign has a hairless scalp.

Compared with that assertion about the royal pate, the statement that “Christians and Muslims worship the same God” is much more complex and multi-layered, and it means entirely different things on the lips of different people. If you are an atheist and think that all “gods” are human constructs, then it is true, in a sense, that every worshipper’s god is different, because slightly different constructs are being made. If you are a monotheist, convinced there is only one transcendent deity, then discussion about “the same” God or different ones doesn’t make much sense. God is God whether or not people have the right ideas about Him. If you are a polytheist, then it is logically possible to discuss whether two groups of people worship the same god; but on that view, both Christians and Muslims must be radically mistaken.

In the philosophical debate about the royal pate, everybody agrees on an important background fact: with due respect to claimants from the House of Bourbon, there is no king of France. So the statement about his scalp is false. But there is no consensus on the crucial “background fact” in the Christian-Muslim question: do one or more gods exist? For that reason, it is almost impossible to discuss; and certainly not an appropriate yardstick to assess the suitability of a professor.

“We Can’t Protest So We Pray”

“We Can’t Protest So We Pray”: Anguish in Amhara During Ethiopia’s State of Emergency

By James Jeffrey, IPS

Woman and child outside a Gonder church with crosses marked in ash on foreheads. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Woman and child outside a Gonder church with crosses marked in ash on their foreheads. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

BAHIR DAR, Apr 17 2017 (IPS) – As dawn breaks in Bahir Dar, men prepare boats beside Lake Tana to take to its island monasteries the tourists that are starting to return.

Meanwhile, traffic flows across the same bridge spanning the Blue Nile that six months ago was crossed by a huge but peaceful protest march.

“They were waiting for an excuse to shoot.” –Priest in Bahir Dar

But only a mile farther the march ended in the shooting of unarmed protesters by security forces, leaving Bahir Dar stunned for months.

Events last August in the prominent Amhara cities of Bahir Dar (the region’s capital) and Gonder (the former historical seat of Ethiopian rule) signalled the spreading of the original Oromo protests to Ethiopia’s second most populace region.

By October 9, following further disasters and unrest, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front party declared a six-month state of emergency, which was extended at the end of this March for another four months.

Ethiopian national flags and regional Amhara flags flutter along the bridge over the Blue Nile on the road going east from Bahir Dar that the protesters took last year. A mile on from the bridge the peaceful march descended into tragedy with shots fired into the crowd. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

On the surface, the state of emergency’s measures including arbitrary arrests, curfews, bans on public assembly, and media and Internet restrictions appear to have been successful in Amhara.

Now shops are open and streets are busy, following months when the cities were flooded with military personal, and everyday life ground to a halt as locals closed shops and businesses in a gesture of passive resistance.

Speaking to residents, however, it’s clear discontent hasn’t abated. Frustrations have grown for many due to what’s deemed gross governmental oppression. But almost everyone agrees that for now, with the state of emergency in place, there’s not much more they can do.

“Now it’s the fasting period before Easter, so people are praying even more and saying: Where are you God? Did you forget this land?” says Stefanos, who works in Gonder’s tourism industry, and didn’t want to give his name due to fear of arrest by the Command Post, the administrative body coordinating the state of emergency.

“Because people can’t protest, they are praying harder than ever.”

The four-month extension to the state of emergency contains less sweeping powers than before. Now police need warrants to arrest suspects or search their homes, and detention without trial has officially been ended. But grievances remain about what happened before.

“Someone will come and say they are with the Command Post and just tell you to go with them—you have no option but to obey,” Dawit, working in Gonder’s tourism industry, says of hundreds of locals arrested. “No one has any insurance of life.”

Outside Gonder churches, beggars line streets hoping for alms. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Locals recall how if young men gathered in too large a group they risked getting arrested.

“The regime has imprisoned, tortured and abused 20, 000-plus young people and killed hundreds more in order to restore a semblance of order,” says Alemante Selassie, emeritus law professor at the College of William & Mary and Ethiopia analyst. “Repression is the least effective means of creating real order in any society where there is a fundamental breach of trust between people and their rulers.”

Across Gondar, many unemployed men seek distraction by chewing the plant khat, a stimulant that motivates animated conversation about security force abuses and the dire local economic situation.

“If you kill your own people how are you a soldier—you are a terrorist,” says 32-year old Tesfaye, chomping on khat leaves. “I became a soldier to protect my people. This government has forgotten me since I left after seven years fighting in Somalia. I’ve been trying to get a job here for five months.”

Beyond such revulsion and frustration, some claim the state of emergency has had other psychological impacts.

“Continued fear and distrust of the [ruling] regime by the Ethiopian people,” says Tewodrose Tirfe of the Amhara Association of America. “Continued loss of hope for a better form a government where basic human rights of the Ethiopians are respected.”

For many the memories of what happened during protests last summer are still raw, especially for Bahir Dar residents.

Tens of thousands gathered in Bahir Dar’s centre on August 7 before marching along the main northeast-running road out of the city toward the Blue Nile River, carrying palm tree leaves and other greenery as symbols of peace.

After crossing the bridge there are various versions about what happened next.

Some say a protester attempted to replace Ethiopia’s current federal national flag flying outside a government building with the older, pan-Ethiopian nationalistic flag—now banned in Amhara—an argument ensued and the guard shot the protester.

Others say that protesters threw stones at the building—the guard fired warning shots in the air—then protesters tried entering the compound—the guard fired at them.

But there is less uncertainly about what happened next.

“Security forces suddenly emerged from buildings and shot into the march for no reason,” says an Ethiopian priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They were waiting for an excuse to shoot.”

It’s estimated 27 died that day, the death toll rising to 52 by the end of the week. A total of 227 civilians have died during unrest in the Amhara region, according to government figures, while others claim it’s much higher.

“Two people on my right side dropped dead,” says 23-year-old Haile, marching that day. “One had been shot in the head, one in the heart.”

Such violence was unprecedented for Bahir Dar, a popular tourist location, known for its tranquil lake and laid-back atmosphere.

“The city went into shock for months,” says the Ethiopian priest.

But as the months have passed, normal daily life has gradually reasserted itself.

“People are tired of the trouble and want to get on with their lives,” says Tesfaye, a tour operator. “But, then again, in a couple of years, who knows.”

Many criticise the government for failing to address long-term structural frictions between Ethiopia’s proclaimed federal constitution and an actual centralist developmental state model, as well as failing to resolve—with some saying it actively stokes—increasing ethnic tensions.

“Three years ago I went to university and no one cared where you were from,” says Haile, a telecommunication engineer in Bahir Dar. “Now Amhara and Tigray students are fighting with each other.”

“Federalism is good and bad,” says Haile’s friend Joseph, who is half Tigrayan and half Amhara. “Ethiopia has all these different groups proud of their languages and cultures. But [on the other hand] even though my father is Tigray, I can’t go and work in Tigray because I don’t speak Tigrayan.”

Joseph pauses to consider, before continuing.

“This government has kept the country together, if they disappeared we would be like Somalia,” he says. “All the opposition does is protest, protest, they can’t do anything else.”

Finding such a view in Gonder is much harder.

“The government has a chance for peace but they don’t have the mental skills to achieve it,” says tourist guide Teklemariam. “If protests happen again they will be worse.”

The main road between Gonder and Bahir Dar winds up and down steep hillsides, surrounded by mountains, cliffs and tight valleys stretching to the horizon.

Ethiopia’s vertiginous topography has challenged foreign invaders for centuries. But it’s potentially a headache for domestic rulers too, added to which militarism is a traditional virtue in the Amhara region.

In Gonder, men talk admiringly of an Amhara resistance movement which conducted hit-and-run attacks on soldiers when they occupied the city, before withdrawing into the surrounding mountains.

“The farmers are ready to die for their land,” the Ethiopian priest says. “It’s all they have known, they have never been away from here.”

According to Gonder locals, armed farmers have been fighting Ethiopian security forces for months.

“I saw dozens of soldiers at Gonder’s hospital with bullet and knife wounds,” says Henok, a student nurse, who took part in the protests. “The government controls the urban but not the rural areas.”

Off the main streets in Gonder, Ethiopia, poverty becomes starker. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Young men like Henok talk passionately of Colonel Demeke Zewudud, a key member of Amhara resistance arrested by the government in 2016, and even more so about Gobe Malke, one of the leaders of the farmer insurrection until he was killed this February, allegedly at the hands of his cousin in the government’s payroll.

“If the government wants a true and real form of stabilization, then it should allow for a true representative form of governance so all people have the representation they need and deserve,” Tewodrose says.

“But the concern of the TPLF is the perception from the international community, so they can continue to receive and misuse foreign aid.”

In his role with the Amhara Association of America, Tewodrose presented a report to a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing March 9 about “Democracy Under Threat in Ethiopia”. The report also detailed 500 security forces killed during fighting in Amhara—Gonder locals claim many more.

“Before I die I just want to see Ethiopia growing peacefully and not divided by tribes,” says 65-year-old grandmother Indeshash, housebound in Gonder due to ongoing leg problems. “If my legs worked I would have protested.”

Ethiopia park tries to relocate settlers to protect wolves

Michael Atsbeha | AP

SIMIEN MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, Ethiopia — Thousands of Ethiopian wolves once roamed much of this country’s mountainous north but their number has fallen dramatically as farmers encroach on their habitat and introduce domestic dogs that carry rabies.

Only 120 wolves are estimated to remain in this national park and they are elusive, usually seen shortly after sunrise or just before sunset.ves

“They are almost at the brink of extinction. So my vision is to increase their number significantly,” said Getachew Assefam, coordinator of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program.

The movement of people move in search of fertile land in the highlands has put pressure on the park. Across the country less than 500 Ethiopian wolves remain in a few mountain enclaves, the Britain-based Born Free Foundation says.

Efforts are underway to move most of the settlers out of this national park in the hope of saving the remaining wolves. The local community currently uses more than two-thirds of the park’s area for grazing, agriculture and settlement, according to the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority.

The wildlife authority said 38 villages with a total of 3,000 people are living within the park’s boundaries.

Gichi village in the heart of the park had more than 418 households before the resettlement program began three years ago. Now there are none. Now the government is focusing on settlers in other areas.

The relocated settlers “are all now living in a better condition,” said the park’s chief warden, Maru Biadgelegn.

But some farmers said the compensation they received for the move is not enough.

Requests by The Associated Press to gain access to the resettlement area were denied. In a recent meeting, residents rejected the government’s compensation offer to resettle the remaining farmers.

“I believe we can come to an agreement on this in the future,” said one park resident, Zezo Adugna.

“One of the most important reasons for the protests across the cities in Oromia regional state – reclamation of linguistic rights – is cunningly ignored by the regional as well as the federal government of Ethiopia.”

NEW PRODUCTS

By Erasmus, Economist