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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 8, 2012| By USCIRF

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is deeply concerned about the increasing deterioration of religious freedoms for Muslims in Ethiopia. Since July 2011, the Ethiopian government has sought to force a change in the sect of Islam practiced nationwide and has punished clergy and laity who have resisted. Muslims throughout Ethiopia have been arrested during peaceful protests: On October 29, the Ethiopia government charged 29 protestors with terrorism and attempting to establish an Islamic state.

"These charges are only the latest and most concerning attempt by the Ethiopian government to crush opposition to its efforts to control the practice of religion by imposing on Ethiopian Muslims a specific interpretation of Islam,” said USCIRF Commissioner Azizah al-Hibri. "The individuals charged were among tens of thousands peacefully protesting the government's violations of international standards and their constitutional right to religious freedom. The Ethiopian government should cease interfering in the internal affairs of its Muslim community and immediately and unconditionally release those wrongfully imprisoned.”

Since July 2011, the Ethiopian government has sought to impose the al-Ahbash Islamic sect on the country's Muslim community, a community that traditionally has practiced the Sufi form of Islam. The government also has manipulated the election of the new leaders of the Ethiopia Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (EIASC). Previously viewed as an independent body, EIASC is now viewed as a government-controlled institution. The arrests, terrorism charges and takeover of EIASC signify a troubling escalation in the government's attempts to control Ethiopia's Muslim community and provide further evidence of a decline in religious freedom in Ethiopia.

"The U.S. government should raise with the new leadership in Addis Ababa the importance of abiding by Ethiopia"s own constitution and international standards on freedom of religion of belief. USCIRF has found that repressing religious communities in the name of countering extremism leads to more extremism, greater instability, and possibly violence,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett. "Given Ethiopia's strategic importance in the Horn of Africa and that Muslims account for more than one-third of all Ethiopians, it is vital that the Ethiopian government end its religious freedom abuses and allow Muslims to practice peacefully their faith as they see fit. Otherwise, the government's current policies and practices will lead to greater destabilization of an already volatile region.”

Background

Ethiopian Muslims traditionally are Sufis. Article 27 of the Ethiopian constitution guarantees religious freedom and "the independence of the state from religion.”

However, due to a concern about the rise of Wahhabism in Ethiopia, the government in July 2011 brought al-Ahbash imams from Lebanon to train Ethiopian imams and Islamic school educators on that sect's beliefs to teach their students and worshippers. The government dismissed from their positions those who refused to be trained in or teach al-Ahbash and closed mosques and schools. Beginning in December 2011, protests have been held almost every Friday outside of mosques after prayers. While these demonstrations have taken place nationwide, they are centered at the Awalia Mosque and Islamic school in Addis Ababa.

As the protests continued, an Arbitration Committee of 17 Islamic leaders was created this past spring to negotiate with the government about: 1) respecting the Ethiopian constitution's guarantees of religious freedom; 2) ending government imposition of al-Ahbash on Ethiopian Muslims, while allowing al-Ahbash to operate equally with other religious communities; 3) re-opening and returning schools and mosques to their original imams and administrators; and 4) holding new elections for the EIASC, and having these elections take place in mosques, rather than in neighborhood government community centers, to ensure that the community's selections would be honored.

By July, the negotiations had failed and the protests increased in both size and frequency. In response, the Ethiopian government started to crack down on and intimidate the demonstrators, surrounding them with armed guards and conducting house-to-house searches. Between July 13 and 21, the government arrested all 17 members of the Arbitration Committee and at least 70 protestors. (While the government has confirmed 70 people were arrested, demonstrators place the number in the hundreds). Human rights organizations reported that the police used excessive force against individuals during the arrests and while in detention. While many were released after being held for a short time, nine of the Arbitration Committee members remain in jail.

The charges the government leveled on October 29 were the first issued against any of the arrested protestors, including the nine Arbitration Committee members who were not released with their colleagues in July. The individuals charged were first detained and held in Maikelwai federal police detention center, which frequently houses political prisoners and is known for abusing prisoners, including torturing them during interrogations. The individuals detained also were charged under the nation's anti-terror law which has been used to target dissent, rather than to stop terrorism.

Protestors now hold up yellow or white placards to signal that they are peaceful and to condemn the arrests and charges. While the demonstrations largely have been peaceful, there have been a few violent incidents: On October 21, 2011 four Muslims were killed as they stormed a jail attempting to free protestors and in April 2012 five people were killed protesting the dismissal of an imam who refused to propagate al-Ahbash.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact Samantha Schnitzer at [email protected] or (202) 786-0613.

For Your Information

October 29, 2012| By Katrina Lantos Swett

The following appeared in The Washington Post On Faith on October 27, 2012.

Across the globe, religion and belief continue to matter deeply in the lives of people and their cultures. From worship to prayer, births to funerals, weddings to holy days, almsgiving to thanksgiving, religion is a central source of identity, meaning, and purpose for billions of human beings.

Because religion matters, so does religious freedom. Simply stated, most people strive to practice their beliefs peacefully as they see fit. They seek to think as they please, believe or not believe as their conscience leads, and live out their convictions openly and peacefully.

Beginning with the1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rightsand the1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, nations around the world have freely assented tointernationalstandardswhich have enshrined this fundamental right.

On Saturday, the United States is celebrating this right by observing International Religious Freedom Day. This celebration marks the day in 1998 that theInternational Religious Freedom Actwas signed. The new law created an international religious freedom office in the U.S. State Department, headed by a newAmbassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and theU.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which I serve.

An independent, bipartisan, federal government commission, USCIRF monitors religious freedom worldwide and makespolicy recommendationsto the president, secretary of state, and Congress.

Based on our monitoring, we have found that people continue to be denied this universal human right in all too many countries, with violations ranging from onerous rules and regulations to imprisonment, torture, and even murder.

Governments engage in or allow at least three kinds of violations of religious freedom: state hostility toward religion, state sponsorship of extremist religious ideology, and state failure to prevent and punish religious freedom violations. Through state hostility, individuals or groups are persecuted on account of their beliefs. State sponsorship involves governments promoting - including exporting - violent and extremist religious ideas that include calls to violate the religious freedom - and sometimes even the right to life -- of others. State failure refers to governments abandoning their duty to protect those whom others are targeting due to their beliefs, creating a climate of impunity in which religious dissenters are threatened, intimidated, or even murdered.

Two of the world's worst persecutors exemplify state hostility toward religion: Iran and China.

In Iran, a theocratic government has executed people for "waging war against God,” while relentlessly targeting reformers among the Shia Muslim majority, as well as religious minorities, including Sunni and Sufi Muslims, Baha'is, Zoroastrians, and Christians. The Iranian government also stirs up anti-Semitism by promoting Holocaust denial.

In China, the world's most populous nation, a Communist government suppresses disfavored religious groups, including Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Falun Gong, the Protestant house church movement, and Catholics who resist government control of their affairs.

Saudi Arabia's autocratic monarchy practices state sponsorship of radical ideology which targets the religious freedom of others. The Saudi government continues to export, through textbooks and other literature, its own interpretation of Islam which teaches hatred and even violence toward individuals and religious groups.

The actions of the governments of Egypt and Pakistan exhibit state failure to protect the religious freedom of their citizens, often against religiously-related violence, creating a climate of impunity which invites further attacks.

Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian government has continued to tolerate widespread abuses against religious minorities, including Coptic Orthodox Christians and dissident Sunni Muslims. It also has failed to take adequate steps to bring the perpetrators of violence to justice, respond to virulent anti-Semitism in state-controlled media, or repeal restrictions on Baha'is and Shi'a Muslims.

In Pakistan, the government's longtime failure to protect religious freedom was on brutal display earlier last year with the assassinations of Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim who was governor of Punjab province, and Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who was Pakistan's Minister for Minority Affairs and a longtime religious freedom advocate. The Pakistani Taliban's despicable assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai for promoting women's education underscores the danger that others face: in the past 12 months, extremists reportedly have killed as many as 300 Shia Muslims, while Ahmadis and Christians continue to be targeted for violence.

Clearly the landscape for religious freedom around the world is challenging. According to aPew Research studyreleased in August, 75 percent of the world's population lives in countries that perpetrate or tolerate serious religious freedom abuses. In other words, three out of every four people on earth live in a hostile and repressive environment for the practice of faith.

Given the dire situation for freedom of religion or belief, the United States must continue to play a vital role in defending the defenseless and pressing for the release of the oppressed. Our government should redouble its efforts toseek changes in oppressive systemsso that next year, there is no increase in this shocking statistic. The desire for change that pulses through many countries, especially in the Arab world, presents an opportunity for the United States to quietly support such progress, for example, in provisions that wouldprotect religious freedomin the constitutions that several nations are drafting.

Religious freedom is a pivotal human right. For humanitarian purposes alone, it must be defended. But there's another reason the world should care. According to a number of studies, nations that honor and protect this right are more peaceful, stable, and prosperous than those that do not. Nations that trample on this freedom provide fertile ground for poverty and insecurity, and violent, radical movements and activities.

As International Religious Freedom Day approaches, let us pay heed, and redouble our efforts on behalf of this precious human right.

Katrina Lantos Swett is the chair of theU.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

To interview a USCIRF Commmissioner, please contact Samantha Schnitzer at [email protected] or (202) 786-0613.