Muslims in Ethiopia: The

C h r i s t i a n L e g a c y, I d e n t i t y
Po l i t i c s, a n d I s l a m i c
Reformism

P a t r i c k D e s p l a t a n d Te r j e Ø s t e b ø

In March 2011, news about the forced flight of Christians from western
Ethiopia stirred a highly charged controversy—both within and beyond
Ethiopia—about the role of Islam in the Horn of Africa. According to a
Fox News report,1 Ethiopian Muslims set ablaze about 50 churches and
dozens of Christian homes. This incident was a consequence of the dese-
cration of the Qur’an by an Ethiopian Christian earlier that month. The
violence escalated but was quickly controlled by federal police. Ethiopian
prime minister Meles Zenawi blamed an obscure religious group called
Kawarij2 for inciting the violence by preaching religious intolerance in the
region. The events in the Jimma region seem not to be an isolated case,
as indicated by similar incidents mentioned at the end of the news report.
Western media interest in Ethiopia is rather sporadic, often limited
to reports on famine and war with neighboring countries. This atypical
news report on communal violence revived old local fears of xenopho-
bia related to an increasing worldwide concern over Muslims and their
assumed violent potential. The report also mentioned the contextual
frame of the violent incidents. While prime minister Meles Zenawi obvi-
ously condemns religious violence, his accusation against an Islamic group
projects two important state-related, but inaccurate perceptions: first, that
Muslim–Christian relations are generally dominated by an enculturated
“religious tolerance” and communal harmony, and second, that the men-
tioned Islamic group is part of a recent and evolving movement of Islamic
reform within Ethiopia that is identified with external forces, mostly of
Arab origin. The government blames some of these groups for disinte-
grating the tradition of tolerance and for triggering previously unknown
religious violence among “tolerant” Ethiopian Muslims. Although this

P. Desplat et al. (eds.), Muslim Ethiopia

© Patrick Desplat and Terje Østebø 2013
2 Pat r i c k D e s p l at a n d T e r j e Ø s t e b ø

allegation disregards historical facts, in particular the marginalization of

Ethiopian Muslims by former political elites, it nevertheless reflects two
common scholarly perceptions of the relationship between Muslims and
Christians in Ethiopia: one that views the relationship as consensual,
peaceful, and tolerant, and another that perceives it as conflictual, violent,
and intolerant (Hussein Ahmed 2006).
The emphasis on religious tolerance is a rather new phenomenon in
public discourses in Ethiopia and sheds new light on Christian–Muslim
relations in the country. These discourses are usually dominated by the
popular notion that Ethiopia is primarily a Christian country—a notion
based upon the historical status and images of Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was
known until the 1930s. Abyssinia is commonly associated with shelter-
ing an ancient tradition of Orthodox Christianity and the narrative of
an old and never-colonized empire, isolated in the highlands of north-
east Africa. This view has been mirrored in the Ethiopian political elite’s
perception of Islam as a non-Ethiopian “Other,” or even a threat, and
is entrenched in several social strata of the Ethiopian society. The con-
temporary equivalent of this view is reflected in increasing concerns with
an imported “Islamic fundamentalism” and potential violence between
religious groups (Abbink 2011; Dereje Feyissa 2011; Erlich 2007).3
When considered from this angle, it is unsurprising that Islam in
Ethiopia as a subject of research has been severely neglected. Stan-
dard works like those of J. Spencer Trimingham (1965 [1952]), Enrico
Cerulli (1971), and Joseph Cuoq (1981) mainly focus on historical con-
flicts between Muslims and Christians. In these studies, Islam became
relevant only when Muslims clashed with the Christian empire, and
thus Muslims were reduced to a distracting and troublesome part of
Ethiopian history. Muslims’ everyday practices and beliefs, their histories
and social roles, have been largely ignored. The congruence of per-
spectives about Islam in Ethiopia found in the social sciences and the
Ethiopian empire clearly reflects the institutionalization of knowledge that
is narrow, one-dimensional, and often ahistorical.
Muslim Ethiopia challenges the notion of a “Christian Ethiopia”
and moves away from the dominant perspectives of Christian–Muslim
relations and religious conflicts in Ethiopian studies. While the title—
in isolation—could be read as a polemic opposite and as yet another
unhealthy bias, it is not our intention to posit ourselves in an ongoing
discourse. Rather, our aim is to provide a more balanced perspective on,
and to underscore the legitimate place of, Islam in Ethiopia—in terms of
its historical legacy, its role in shaping the society, and its demographic
makeup. The book sheds light on contemporary sociopolitical dynamics
that have contributed to the shaping of new patterns of religious expres-
sions and representations in the public sphere, and Islamic practices and