Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi is one of the hundred wealthiest men in
the world. He lives between Addis Ababa and Riyadh, is of Ethiopian
birth and has Saudi nationality.
His fortune has been amassed through
his work in a wide range of sectors including mining, hospitals,
finance, agriculture and oil. There is only one other dark-skinned man
in the world who has greater wealth than he does.
Incredibly acute inequality is nothing out of the ordinary in
Ethiopia – a country with eighty million inhabitants whose life
expectancy is below fifty.
Ethiopia has an incredibly exclusive elite
made up of few very wealthy citizens, with very prosperous countries not
too far away. For a case in point, we could look at the United Arab
Emirates or Saudi Arabia, nations that have built their immense wealth
on oil.
These are Islamic countries keen to swell the ranks of those who
follow the words of the Quran, even in Queen Sheba’s homeland, where
Mohammed sought refuge when he was forced to flee persecution in Mecca.
“Our challenge also centres around the poverty of our own
people”, says the Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa, Abune
Berhaneyesus Dermerew Souraphiel, “the Saudis help our poor people in
exchange for them converting to Islam. The Saudis know that they will
not be good Muslims, but that their children will be. In this way, Saudi
Wahabbism is putting peaceful coexistence in Ethiopia at risk”.
On 9 August, 10,000 Muslims paraded through the streets of the
capital to celebrate the end of Ramadan. They called for the release of
the imams arrested some twenty months ago because of their links with
fundamentalist groups and the sermons they preached after praying.
Religious leaders have been accused of conspiring against the state. The
demonstration descended into violent clashes, with some injured and a
few deaths. The Islamic community has very tense links with the
government, even though several ministers are Muslim.
The country’s
economy is seeing strong growth, but a lot is left to be desired in the
area of human rights. For instance, one year ago, twenty journalists
were convicted of conspiring against the government and given very
severe sentences of between eight years and life.
In August last year, the Orthodox Patriarch Abuna Paulos and
Melles Zenawi died. The latter had been the one to overthrow the former
dictator, Mengistu, before ruling the country from the end of the 1991
war onwards.
The deaths of these two important figures now means that
the political balance and religious balance are much more delicate.
According to the last government census, 34% of Ethiopians practice
Islam, while Christians make up 62% of the population. 44% of Ethiopians
are Orthodox Christians, while 17% are Protestant and only 1% are
Catholics, who number around 800,000 in total. Despite their small
numbers, the Catholics run a large share of the social services.
For
some time, Christians and Muslims have worked together on several social
works.
Furthermore, recently an Interreligious Council was created in
order to facilitate dialogue and manage shared services.
“The
government entrusts us with many social services because we do not
discriminate”, says the Archbishop of Addis Ababa and President of the
Ethiopian Bishops’ Conference, who underscored the fact that nor should
the state discriminate against anyone, basing itself on its own most
fundamental form of legislation, “our constitution is open to all
religious groups. The Muslims would like to impose Sharia law, but
public courts do not apply religious laws”.
In Ethiopia, many keep a
close eye on how the crises in North Africa and the Middle East are
developing, in particular those in Syria and Egypt.
If the Muslim
Brotherhood ends up on top, this could grant renewed strength to Islamic
Salafist groups, who want to impose Sharia law and give Islams a
greater presence in public life.