Religious Persecution: Why Does Abiy Ahmed’s Government Demolish Mosques and Desecrate the Quran in Ethiopia?

Since the start of Ramadan 2023, within a span of merely two months, the Ethiopian government has demolished 19 mosques in the predominantly Muslim region of Oromia under the pretext of development and construction of a large commercial center called Sheger City.

When Muslim protesters gathered following Friday prayers on May 26, 2023, the police responded by opening fire, tragically resulting in the loss of two lives and leaving dozens injured.

Clashes between worshipers and the police occurred at the Anwar and Noor mosques north of the capital, Addis Ababa.

This is not the first time that mosques have been attacked in Ethiopia. In 2019, extremist Christian groups launched attacks on mosques, burning and demolishing some of them without any government intervention.

Ethiopia, with a Christian majority accounting for nearly two-thirds of the population, especially the Orthodox, has Muslims constituting a majority in approximately one-third of the country.

 

Warning Bell

The Muslim protest that took place after Friday prayers on May 26, 2023, served as a warning bell, alerting the authorities and warning them of a potential uprising by Muslims, who make up 33% of the total population of the country, estimated at 36 million out of 113 million according to official statistics.

The demolition of 19 mosques and the desecration of the Holy Quran in predominantly Muslim Oromia, the homeland of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is a Christian, under the pretext of “development,” has incited anger and deepened the existing animosity. This practice, reminiscent of tyrannical actions seen worldwide, has further exacerbated the situation.

Ethio–American Development Council (EADC) revealed that Muslims in Addis Ababa protested against the demolition of more than 19 mosques in Oromia and the desecration of the Holy Quran, confirming that many Muslims were injured by live ammunition.

On May 26, 2023, the Council, through its Twitter account, highlighted that 19 mosques had been destroyed since Ramadan by the government of Abiy Ahmed. This religious persecution has left Muslims feeling shocked, and the Council presented a glimpse of their protests.

According to an eyewitness for AFP, on May 27, 2023, worshipers chanted slogans against the Sheger City project, a large center, and against the government following the Friday prayers.

They shouted slogans calling to stop the destruction of their mosques. When they were surrounded by large security forces at the mosque’s entrances, the worshipers became angry and threw their shoes at them. In response, the police fired bullets and tear gas.

Videos depicting the clashes that occurred in the capital and showing the demolished mosques and desecrated Quran copies have spread through social media platforms.

In 2022, the federal and Oromia regional authorities launched a controversial project called Sheger City, which involves integrating six towns surrounding the capital into a wide western arc.

They embarked on a campaign to demolish buildings and mosques, claiming that they were constructed illegally.

Opponents of the project condemned these actions as “discriminatory” and based on what they perceive as “ethnic” criteria against individuals who do not belong to the Oromo ethnicity.

They also labeled it as “religious” discrimination, targeting mosques and schools belonging to Muslims, according to AFP.

In April 2023, the Ethiopian Human Rights Committee (EHRC) condemned the large-scale demolitions and forced evictions in the newly formed city.

The committee accused the Oromia administration of carrying out unlawful forced evictions and demolitions that violate federal laws and contradict international human rights laws.

Ethiopian activist Yuri Tadesse stated that the government’s religious provocation and destruction of properties are behind the ongoing protests by Muslims.”

He affirmed through his Twitter account on May 26, 2023, that the demolition of several mosques in Oromia and the desecration of the Holy Quran strike at the core of the religious and cultural identity of Ethiopian Muslims.

Tadesse pointed out that the protests of Ethiopian Muslims shed light on their growing concerns regarding the policies and measures of the Abiy Ahmed regime against religious institutions.

The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Addis Ababa issued an 11-point statement condemning the demolition of mosques and the killing of Muslims defending them on May 27, 2023.

The Council called on Allah to “accept the innocent Muslims who lost their lives in the attack that took place on May 26 around the Anwar and Nur mosques in Addis Ababa as martyrs.

They also demanded the formation of an independent investigation committee by the government and the Council for Islamic Affairs to investigate the attack on the two mosques.

The Council urged the Oromia regional government to stop the demolition of mosques in Sheger and instead rebuild what has been destroyed, describing the government’s actions as a lack of respect for Islam and Muslims.

Notably, the Council’s statement hinted at the responsibility of anti-Islam elements in various structural positions of the government in creating a conflict between the people and the government.

Therefore, they called on the authorities to take appropriate measures to cleanse and purify the government structure.

 

Previous Attacks

There have been previous violent clashes between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in the city of Gonder, located in the predominantly Christian Amhara region, on April 26, 2022.

In these clashes, 30 people were killed and 100 were injured following an attack on an Islamic cemetery.

Ethiopian Muslims took to social media platforms to affirm that these clashes, which started with a Christian attack on a Muslim cemetery, resulted in the deaths of over 14 Muslims and the injury of dozens. Additionally, five mosques and 21 Muslim homes were burned down in the city of Gonder.

On April 27, 2022, the Amhara Islamic Affairs Council announced that over 20 people were killed in an attack targeting Muslims in the city of Gonder, northern Ethiopia, during the funeral of an elderly Muslim.

The Council described the attack as a “massacre” and held “armed Christian extremists” responsible, who allegedly unleashed heavy gunfire and hand grenades on the mourners.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Addis Ababa said in a statement on April 27, 2022, that the number of casualties in Gonder had risen to 21.

The attack was described as a “planned massacre” where mosques and Quran copies were burned, women were raped, and Muslim properties were destroyed in the city, according to the Ethiopian Standard newspaper on April 27, 2022

The Ethiopian security and intelligence agencies, as well as the police and army, claimed that 280 suspects were arrested for their involvement in the events.

It was mentioned that there are forces working under the cover of religion to destabilize and dismantle the country, without specifying their nature, although Ethiopian newspapers hinted at Christian factions from Amhara who rejected Abiy Ahmed’s authority, as he is from Oromia.

Following the religious confrontations between Christians and Muslims in 2022 due to attacks on mosques by Ethiopian Christian extremists, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion issued a statement on May 7, 2022, criticizing the clashes between religions.

The statement said: “In the apparent retaliatory attacks that followed, two Orthodox Christian men were reportedly burnt to death, another man hacked to death, and five churches burnt down” in the southwest of the country,” adding that other regions had since seen clashes without mentioning that 21 Muslims were killed!

Since the eruption of armed conflict in the Tigray region on November 3, 2020, between the regional government led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian army, there has been speculation about a “religious” dimension to the conflict, in addition to the ethnic tensions between the Amhara and Oromo groups.

It was rumored that the religious factor played a role in what happened in Gonder. At that time, the regional authority in Amhara accused the TPLF of supporting the Qemant ethnic nationalist movement by providing weapons, money, and incitement for the purpose of demanding self-rule. Both groups have an extremist Christian religious orientation.

In 2019, a similar conflict erupted in the Dessie area, northeast of Addis Ababa, over land where Christians attempted to build a church while Muslims claimed it belonged to them, resulting in the death of several people.

Five individuals were arrested for setting fire to four mosques in Dessie itself, leading to a wave of religious violence, according to local media.

During the Ethiopian forces’ attack on the Tigray region, the historic al-Nejashi Mosque was bombed in December 2020. It is the first mosque in Africa, named after a king who welcomed Muslim immigrants and treated them well. The mosque was built on the first African land to embrace Islam and suffered damage due to the bombing.

 

Bombing al-Nejashi Mosque

BBC reported on January 5, 2021, citing the European External Programme with Africa, that the al-Nejashi Mosque was first bombed and then looted by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. Muslims who tried to protect it were killed.

Images showed the minaret of the mosque destroyed, its dome partially collapsed, its facade destroyed, and debris scattered inside the mosque.

Ahmed Siraj, the representative of the regional International Association of Muslims in Tigray, stated that his organization documented the killing of several Muslims following the partial destruction of the mosque.

He explained to the Middle East Eye (MEE) on January 13, 2021, that people in Ethiopia are identified based on their origin; several innocent people, including a father of four children, were killed by Eritrean soldiers simply for protesting against the looting of the mosque on November 26, 2020.

Siraj added that several artifacts were stolen from the mosque, including religious manuscripts, books, and letters dating back to the seventh century. There was also a shrine believed to contain the remains of some of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, which was damaged.

Meanwhile, The Conversation, an Australian website, criticized on March 29, 2022, what it called Ethiopia’s war in Tigray risks wiping out centuries of the world’s history. It confirmed that historic sites in the region, including this historic mosque and churches, were deliberately targeted.

It stated that “the Aksumite civilization, one of the four known civilizations established in the first century CE (in addition to Rome, Persia, and China), was in today’s central Tigray.”

The website also noted that “many of Tigray’s heritage sites have been targeted by invading troops. The region has thousands of churches, monasteries, mosques and symbolic Islamic settlements, archaeological sites, museums, and ritual centers.”

The al-Nejashi Mosque, a symbol of Islam’s first entry into Africa, was bombed, valuable manuscripts from the Middle Ages were burned and destroyed, and thousands of artifacts were looted and smuggled.

In some Ethiopian cities, such as the ancient city of Axum, the Orthodox Christians are prevented from building mosques, claiming that it is a “holy city,” as reported by BBC on June 25, 2019.

The reason for the ban on mosque construction there, according to Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, is their belief that Axum is the city of the Queen of Sheba and houses the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the Ten Commandments sent by God to the Prophet Moses.

Axum was known for its religious tolerance, and Muslims first arrived in the city during the early days of Islam, around 600 AD, fleeing religious persecution by the Quraysh tribe. The Christian king welcomed them and facilitated their first presence there as Muslims.

Muslims, who constitute 10% of Axum’s population with a total of 73,000 people, compared to 85% Orthodox Christians, tried to organize campaigns for the construction of a mosque in the city, but Christian leaders strongly rejected this.