http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/65083
Islam in the Horn of Africa
Abdulazez Al-Motairi
June 15, 2008
Presently, Islam is the most widely practiced religion
in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia,
Djibouti, and Eretria.
Some of today's Muslims in the region had their ancestors converted from Christianity
and others had theirs migrated from the Arab
peninsula. Ethnically, these Muslims belong to
different tribes, such as Somalis, Oromo, Afar, and
others and they mainly speak Cushitic Language.
Today, Somalia and Djibouti are predominantly Muslim
and Ethiopia has about 40 percent and Eretria 50
Percent Muslim Population.
In Eretria most Muslims belong to Jabarti tribe and many of them are
descendants of Arab tribes. Some major Somali tribes
have Arab roots like Isaaq, of Iraqi roots, and
Daarood, of Yemeni roots. The region had historical
trade and economic relations with Arabs in the gulf
including Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman in addition
UAE.
History of Islam in the region
Islam and Somalis
Beginning of Salafi Group in Somalia
Islam-o-phobia of Ethiopia
Islam vs. Ethiopian Emperors
History of Islam in the region
Islamic history reveals the first Muslim immigration
by Sahaba (apostles) of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) to
Ethiopia to save their religion from "Idol worshipers"
in Makka of Arab decedents on 615 AD. Sahaba were
forced to leave their homes in Makka due to pressure
and killing by the Arabs of Makka.
The King of Abyssinian (Habash) Nagashi welcomed the
Sahaba to his kingdom and permitted them to teach and
preach their religion in Habash. Even, Nagashi turned
down the request of Arab delegate from Makka who
demanded extradition of the Sahaba.
Some Ethiopians embraced Islam at the hands of the Sahaba who stayed
in Habash many years until Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)
asked them to come back to their homeland. The
spreading of Islam stopped for a while after Sahaba
returned to Makka.
Islamic History says first Islamic Funeral prayer in
absentee was performed by Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) from
Madina on body of Nagashi (The King of Abyssinia)
after his death in Harare City, Ethiopia.
Islam entered Ethiopia as primary believe in the 16th
Century by Arab traders and preachers, which led 65%
of Ethiopians to embrace Islam. This created fear in
the Ethiopian Church who later considered the Muslims
as the principal threat to their existence.
In 16th and beginning of 17th Century, Islamic State
of ADAL was announced by Somalis and Arabs led by
Warrior Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Ghazi known (Ahmed Guray).
Ahmed Guray, who was an Arab, led full-scale war
against Abyssinia and defeated them. Ahmed Guray army
captured more than 50% of Ethiopian highlands, which
accelerated the number of Ethiopians embracing Islam.
Ahmed Guray received support from Othman Emperor
(known Turkey) and King Saeed Barqash of Sultanate of
Oman.
The bad feeling of Ethiopian Church towards Muslims
increased very sharply, and after they failed to stop
Ahmed Guray and his army; they appealed to Portugal
for support.
Ahmed Guray continued a chain of victories against Abyssinian army for about two
decades. History says that Ahmed Guray dead during
fighting with Portugal forces who arrived to support
Ethiopia. The widow of Ahmed Guray, called Bati Del
Wambara overtook the leadership of ADAL and continued
the fighting.
ADAL's headquarter was located in Zayla, the coast
town connecting between Djibouti and Somaliland. ADAL
collapsed awhile after the death of Ahmed Guray.
This gave the Ethiopians the chance to recapture back the
land they lost to ADAL without resistance.
Also, Arabs preached Islam in neighboring Kenya and
Tanzania. The King of Oman Saeed founded strong bases
in the coast areas including Mombasa, Kenya and
Zanzibar of Tanzania. Somalis are part of 30% of
Kenyan Muslims mainly in the Northern Regions and
Coast Areas. In Tanzania the Muslims form 50%.
Islam and Somalis:
Somali, the name is derived from the Somali word (Soo
Maal), which means milking the livestock. Somali is
basically a Cushitic language spoken in many countries
including Somalia, Ethiopian, Djibouti and Kenya as
primary and official languages. Somali speaking
population is about 10 million.
Somalia is the only country in the world that is 100%
Muslim. Somalia Muslims are all Sunnis who practice
the Shaafi faith. The people living in Somalia speak
Somali and Arabic in addition to Rahanwayn language in
the south of Somalia.
There are about four major tribes in Somalia including
Hawiye, Isaaq, Daarood and Rahanwayn. Isaac, Daarood
and Hawiye have Arabian roots, where Darood are the
children of Darood Ismail Jabarti, who was from
southern Yemen, Isaac are the children of Sheikh Isaaq
bin Ahmed who was from Mosul, Iraq. Hawiyo is
combination of different groups but mainly from Yemen.
Islam entered Somalia and Ethiopian within first ten
centuries of the Georgian calendar by Arab traders and
Preachers. Somalis, after the collapse of ADAL,
attended Arabian universities mainly Egyptian Al-Azhar
University. The relation between the Arabs and Somalis
had grown stronger particularly with Yemen and
Sultanate of Oman.
After western colonizers divided Somalia into five
main parties leaving Djibouti with France, Somaliland
with British, South Somalia with Italy, and Reserve
Area with Ethiopia in addition to NFD with Kenya. The
occupation of these areas happen different times,
Britain sold Reserve Area and NFD to Ethiopia and
Kenya in 20th Century.
Some of Al-Azhar University Graduates arrived back
home including Sayed Abdullah Hassan, nick named The
Mad Mullah. He was not wise man and started armed
struggle against British. He tried to overtake some
parties of Somaliland mainly Hawd Area. British
disbanded his army by air bombing. The Mad Mullah dead
during the air bombing by British.
Sayed Abdullah Hassan (the Mad Mulla) was Sufist and
convinced many Somalis to practice the Sufi faith.
Sufi faith permits Spiritual attainment in Islam,
where Muslim is allowed to pray to Allah via another
religious person. But Salafi Group, also called
Wahabist in Somalia, rejects the idea of attainment.
Salafi or Wahabist faith entered Somalia about four
decades ago.
Beginning of Salafi Group in Somalia:
Until 1960´s majority of Somalis practiced Sufi faith
of Islam that had wide respect among Somali tribes.
Somalis consider Sufi faith as less violent compare to
Salafi faith.
The Qur'an was taught using Somali language as the
people were unfamiliar with Arabic. Somalis use to
write Qur'an on wooden sheet like instrument using ink
made of traditional Somali coal. Such practices
remains active until now but with less percentage.
In mid 1970s the Salafi faith of Islam was introduced
in Somalia by Somali students graduated from Saudi
Arabian Islamic universities. The students started
teaching the Nobel Qur'an and gradually gained very
wide popularity across Somalia.
In less than ten years, the Salafi faith replaced Sufi
faith; the leaders of the mosques turn into Salafi,
and Sufi faith started disappearing slowly until
today. The Salafi faith had strong relation with their
counterparts in else where in the world mainly Saudi
Arabia.
After 1977, Salafi revolution in Somalia spread into
the neighboring countries like Ethiopia and formed an
armed group called Al-Itahad Al-Islamiya, with their
main aim is to liberate Somali dominated areas in
Ethiopia from Ethiopian occupation.
Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and Al-Shabab were product
of Al-Itahad Al-Islamiya, as major senior leaders in
both ICU and Al-Shabab are co-founders of Al-Itahad
Al-Islamiya.
Today, Salafi faith is widely practiced inside
Somalia, and with very high speed. The youth and
middle age follow Salafi faith except the elderly who
still practice the Sufi faith. Majority of the mosques
in Somalia is led by Salafi preachers.
Islam-o-phobia in Ethiopia:
After collapse of ADAL, Kingdom of Abyssinia put
pressure to Muslim and forced many of them to return
to Christianity. The kingdom did not allow the Muslims
to practice their religion in public, where prayers
were performed in-house only. Muslims were not allowed
officially to travel to Makka to perform Hajj until
1974, after military coup led by Migusto Haile Mariam.
Mariam ordered freedom of religion and allowed Muslims
to perform Hajj. Muslims in Eritrea were under similar
condition.
Today, more than half of Ethiopians are devout
Muslims, mainly in the outlying regions, and in the
Eastern Lowlands.
Traditionally, the status of Islam has been far from
equal with that of Christianity. However, the emperor
Haile Selassie gave audiences to Muslim leaders and
made overtures in response to their concerns, and
under the Derg even more was done to give at least
symbolic parity to the two faiths. Nevertheless, the
perception of Ethiopia as "an island of Christianity
in a sea of Islam" has continued to prevail among both
highland Ethiopians and foreigners.
In 1964, Ethiopian Christian leaders attacked Somalia
in a plan to end the Islamic presence in the region.
At that time, Somalia was only four years old without
proper military and government institutions. But
overall this, Somalis defend their country very
bravely and forced Ethiopia to retrieve. This was the
first religious war between Ethiopia and Somalia.
In 1977, Somalis retaliates and occupied 60% of
Ethiopian land and even gone close to Addis Ababa in
18 kilometers. The objective of Somalis was to return
the Reserve Area illegally sold by British to
Ethiopia. Ethiopia was unable to stop the Somalis. And
as usually, Ethiopia pleaded to international support,
and received military support of Russia and Cuba.
Russia-Cuba Alliance forced the Somali military to go
back into Somalia border.
In 2006, Ethiopian invaded Somalia on the bases of
similar background. Ethiopia always considers the
Somali Islamist as #1 enemy. Ethiopia saw the Islamic
Courts Union (ICU), as the new threat to their
national unity; Ethiopian Prime Minister Melese Zanawi
follows the old procedure of the church, who considers
the Muslims as major enemy of Ethiopia. Zanawi is man
of principle but the unfortunate is those supporting
Zanawi and Church Plan in Somalia like Transitional
Government of Somalia (TGS) leader Abdullah Yusuf.
In similar manner Oromo is facing insult and pressure
from Ethiopian government, where they don´t get proper
share in the government and even their children are
not allowed to attend the universities in Addis Ababa.
Melese Sanawi selected Christian man from Oromo to be
Ethiopian President. He overlooked the Muslim majority
of Oromo, because, simply, he does not want Muslim.
This shows that Ethiopian government is not killing
all Oromo but only the Muslims because of their
believe in the Greater Islam.
Oromo is the largest community in Ethiopia in middle
of lowlands, 90% of Oromo practice Islam as
fundamental religion, Islam was introduced to Oromo in
16th century with neighboring Somali Community. Oromo
has anti-Ethiopian armed movements and recently
accused receiving military support and training from
Eritrea. Current President of Ethiopia is from
Christian Minority of Oromo, where Muslims has little
access to government due to their armed struggle.
Islam vs. Ethiopian Emperors:
The battle between the Muslim leaders and Ethiopian
emperors is active until today, because the Ethiopian
invasion in Somalia has strong roots into the
centuries old conflict between the Muslims and
Ethiopian Christian emperor.
Ahmed Guray freed many parts of Ethiopia from the
emperors who restricted the freedom of the people; the
parties that ADAL army captured include Shewa, Gonder,
Wollo and parts of Tigray. Some historians say the
struggle between the Christian Emperors in Ethiopia
and Somalis started from 1528 until today.
Emporer Lebna Dengel, who was ruling Abyssinia during
the war with ADAL, plead for support from Portugal
after his army failed to stop ADAL army.
In the same manner, United States of America (USA) is
helping Meleze Sanawi to stop the Islamist growing in
the region. Ethiopia knows, if Muslim government comes
to power in Somalia then it will come to ethiopia to
free the thousands of the Muslim ethiopians trapped
under Melese regime.
The government don´t allow construction of new mosques
in the capital, Addis Ababa. In other hand, the
European Christian missionaries builds new church
every one month. Church bells are famous in Addis
Ababa more than the Mosques.
The present mosques in Addis Ababa are centuries old;
it is remainings of Othman Emporers. The Muslims don´t
take part in the central government, and if any Muslim
gets chance in the central government, he/she should
be lapdog for Ethiopian Christian Emporer Meleze
Sanawi. Muslims in Addis Ababa feel overtaken and
always seek help from the Muslim world, but the
failure of Somalia has led them into endless problems.
By Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi
Email: az.almutairi@yahoo.com
***************
Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi, MA in Journalism and Mass
Communication, Columnist, Freelance Journalist and
Weekly article writer about Middle East and African
politics and human rights. He is member of
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
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