Ethiopia’s Ahbash Path to Religious Moderation and Countering Extremism

Ethiopia is a religiously diverse state with a history of largely cordial relationships among religious groups except from the occasional confrontation and mistrust. However, the relatively peaceful coexistence seems to be losing ground for intolerance and religious extremism in recent years. Both inter- and intra-religious conflicts are not uncommon to observe. Intra-religious conflicts within the Muslim community are surfacing mainly between the Sufi- and Salafi-oriented groups either along doctrinal lines or competition for controlling Islamic institutions. Equally worrying is the role of the government in ‘mediating the conflict’. Sufism is now gaining momentum around government policy circles to be promoted as a strategy for countering religious extremism. Sufis represented by Ahbash are now receiving ‘undue government favour’ often at the exclusion of the Salafis who are accused of harbouring religious intolerance and extremist ideas. In this regard, the government is running the risk of embracing an ‘official Islam’ viewed as moderate, apolitical and correct at the exclusion of extremist, political and ‘distorted Islam’ quite in contradiction with the constitutional principle of secularism. This paper examines the threats of religious extremism in post-1991 Ethiopia and interrogates the government policies and practices taking into account the regional and geopolitical contexts. It identifies the actors, their roles, power positions and mobilisation strategies in the conflict.