The Question of Becoming: Islamic Reform-Movements in Contemporary Ethiopia‏

Islam in Ethiopia has historically found itself in the shadow of the dominating Christian state. The intermarriage between the state and the church, with the monarchy and Christianity as the defining elements of Ethiopian nationhood, led to the perceptionof Islam as its anti-thesis; one the one hand because of the perceived danger Islam as an external force posed to the Christian Ethiopia, and on the other hand because the Ethiopian Muslims refused to let themselves become culturally/religiously integrated into this Ethiopianness. Whereas the state-church marriage came to an end with the revolution in 1974, the Muslims largely remained on the margins of society. Although the new Marxist regime (the Derg)2 initially was welcomed by the Muslims, the regime’s policy of curtailing any form of religious expressions was soon felt by each religious community, including the Muslim. In other words, Islam being subject to subjugation both from the Christian state and the Marxist project, has created a situation where Ethiopia’s Muslims have remained a rather invisible entity within the country, marginalised and secluded from the rest of the Ethiopian society. Get this must read document from here






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