“A regime that has been thriving on dictatorship for twenty years is not expected to reform itself in twenty months. What we are witnessing today is a reflection of this,” said Ustaz Ahmed Mustufa, member of the Ethiopian Muslim Arbitration Committee. Speaking at Kaliti’s Nasir Mosque on April 16 to the crowds who were chanting, “Allah Akbar!” he said “while the regime officials continue to take uncivilized, backward measures, we are not going to stoop to their level. Until they learn to be civilized, we commit ourselves to stick to a civilized and decent path. However, that doesn’t mean that we would allow them to intimidate us and deprive us our rights.”

Days after the federal and Addis Ababa police officers attacked worshipers inside the mosque located on the capital’s outskirts, a backlash is underway, with religious leaders, clerics and right activists denouncing the act. The Arbitration Committee comprising of religious scholars, including Mujab Amino, Sheik Mekete Muhe, Sheik Tuahir, Ustaz Kamil Shemisu, came up with a statement, after touring the area and talking with the worshipers. “We have come to realize that the police had completely overreacted. Many were hurt, women and children were not spared, attempts were made on the lives of our brothers, and the minaret of the mosque was shot by bullets. Gross human rights violations have been committed,” the statement reads.

What caused it?

According to Akaki Kaliti Sub-city Communication’s Affairs Office, officials of the Nasir Mosque located on woreda 8, has made requests to secure the open land around the Mosque to expand the site. However, the requested parcel of land was allotted for the Sub-City’s police station, the foundation already put.  “The police station gave up the plan and went on to secure a plot at another site, saying it was not sufficient for the purpose. Lastly, the land was awarded for the woreda 8 administration in order to construct G7 building headquarter. A corrugated sheet fence was erected to indicate its ownership. However, on March 16, 2019, the Mosque members encroached and retained the space by destroying the fence, and a few days later erected a crescent moon symbol,” the Office said in a statement it published on its Facebook page.

Elias Kedir, one of the members of Arbitration committee has a slightly different version. He says the parcel of land, that he estimated to be 500 sq meter, has been given as consecrated prayer space eleven years ago. “Compared to the Muslim population in the area, the previous space was not adequate, then the administration has granted the permit for the stated purpose after a request was made,” he told Ethiopia Observer. «A few years later, members of the army stationed in the nearby camp requested for the space designated for prayer and it was later taken by the local administration, by disregarding the earlier permit, he explains.

However, the Sub-city’s communication bureau in the Facebook post contradicts that, saying the request for more space was presented by the woreda’s “majlis” (Muslim Council) only on March 19, 2019, and the only promise given by the Sub-City officials was to consider the possibility of providing part of the land for the prayer space. In the meantime, an order was given to evacuate the encroached land, for which the Majlis agreed, it says.

Simultaneously, there was also ongoing discussion between the Arbitration Committee and the Addis Ababa city Administration to find a solution for the status of the disputed land and other mosques in the city that are unlicensed, whose numbers no one wants to say.

What happned on April 16?

On April 16, according to the Communication Bureau, security forces carrying only batons were deployed to remove the crescent symbol and the sand that was deposited on the parcel of the land. “While they were in the middle of talking with the clergy of the mosque, a call was made through the microphone to give the impression that there was a threat to the mosque, with the objective of triggering incitement. Individuals who were inside the mosque drew shotguns and fired. Only then was the armed security forces intervened to de-escalate the situation.”

The Mosque officials emphatically refute the claim that there were people firing guns from the side of the Mosque but say more than 14 Muslims were wounded by the actions of the security police. Five congregants have been taken and imprisoned and two other persons who went to visit them few hours later were also made to stay there, they say. All those arrested subsequently were released. However, the security forces’ action and the images of the injured that circulated on social media have certainly caused sadness and real anger among the Muslim community. One activist boldly says the attack on the mosque ground was worse than anything the regime did before the ascent of Abiy Ahmed. In what seems an attempt to appease the anger, the Addis Ababa City Administration issued a statement saying that the police action was done without its knowledge.   

Unfair allocation of land?

The Muslim community, who have long complained of discrimination in the allocation of government land for religious sites, accuse the Addis Ababa mayor, Takele Uma Benti of ordering the destruction of three mosques only in the past year, including Umar Mosque which was located on Bole Arabsa, the legally constructed mosque. The Mayor later apologized, pledging to assist to reconstruct the mosque.

The battle to build mosques and to find prayer spaces in the capital and in the country and the fate of thousands of unlicensed mosques have been a concern for some time. Even the Grand Anwar Mosque located in the Merkato district, a building dating from the Italian Occupation, was issued with a legal status just some months before the resignation of Hailemarim Desalegn on February 2018, according to Elias Kedir. “Most mosques are not built on land allotted by the government but on leased and purchased plots. With the coming of Prime Minister Abiy, a committee was formed to arrange for the legalization of the properties,” he told Ethiopia Observer.

Many in the Muslim community complain they face discrimination in getting permits to build mosques, along with stifling restrictions on their practice of Islam. Some claim the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) gets favored treatment. Others say the facts on the ground do not show that, indicating the mushrooming of mosques in the capital and many parts of the country. Figures are hard to come by but the then State Minister of Government Communications Affairs Office, Shimeles Kemal in 2013 was quoted as saying there were over 60,000 mosques in Ethiopia (over 250 in Addis Ababa), most of them built in the last two decades.

Main Image: A mosque in Addis Ababa, Magnus Franklin

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